Guardians of Transylvania
by HuntMASTERV
Summary: A hybrid who’s lost his right as count of New Transylvania and a werewolf who’s lost her voice amongst her kind, both taken from them by the very organization they swore to protect. They’ll reform their old squad and fight the corruption but will face many hardships and tough choices in the now dark, monster–ruled earth.(AU story set 15 years after HT 2.)
1. Echoes of War

**Author's note: So this here is a bit different for an HT fic as it mainly focuses on the realities of war and betrayal and what could have possibly happened if humans didn't fully make peace with monsters. I've had this idea stuck in my head for awhile now and was actually inspired by some DennisxWinnie fics back in 2016, now I have it fleshed out enough to get it started. Story will be a T rating for violence, blood, and language but I could bump it up later for possible sexual content.**

**Special note: As far as my Femur Island fic goes it's on hold for now, I don't know when or if I'll start updating it again.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anyone here, Sony Pictures Animation does. My OCs are mine.**

**Chapter One**

_Martha_

_Martha _

_"How did this happen? How did it get to this. . this wasteland of nothingness? Could I have saved them? Saved them from death and saved us from this?_

The count received no answer from the portrait. It was half burnt and her face was slightly distorted but he could still see those eyes, the eyes that he once looked into and cherished so long ago. He would always ask her in his dire time of need, and he would always receive no reply. He honestly didn't know if he was insane or just one day expected her to come back.

Dracula moved away from the painting as there was no point in talking to himself, and went to the window facing out of his private bedroom. His steel eyes gazed along the city limits of New Transylvania and to the horizon beyond, nothing but dust dunes and dead trees. "_My sweet blood–bat is still out there somewhere."_

He didn't know how or why, he just felt her. Him and the others searched everywhere, anytime they could for the last thirteen years and still no sign of her. Maybe she was hiding, and for that he couldn't blame her. Maybe what she saw that night thirteen years ago was enough to break her or this whole damn war perhaps, and come to think he hadn't been a great father either. He was going to find her though, even if it took scouring every inch of the earth for the rest of his days.

More lights flooded the streets below as the monsters became active and the sun dipped below the horizon. The city was to become even more crowded than usual as today was the one year anniversary of C–day. Monsters will come from all over the world to celebrate and tomorrow representatives from the different nations of the UMA will show to hear the annual address from the count of Transylvania. Only this time, Dracula will not do the talking.

Dennis has proven himself a capable leader at the end of the war, leading the Guardian Squad. They were a small unit ment to defend the new city from any threats both from monster extremist and possible human marauders, composed of Dennis, Winnie, and a few others. Dracula made sure they were well trained and that Dennis knew how to properly channel Dark Magic without it consuming him. Dennis was technically the only heir to the castle and to Drac there was no better leader than him, sure he can be a bit arrogant and clumsy at times but he sheds a new light on a old and dark legacy.

"Well, no point in letting him sleep in."

Drac made for the large door and grabbed his cape on the way out. He took one last look at the painting before closing the door for good.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The vast concrete and marble corridors of Castle Transylvania were virtually empty, save for the suits of armor standing guard along the walls. Only the count's family and close friends were allowed to visit without registering due to a close call assault from the Dark Brood, an attack that was thwarted by Dennis and the Guardians.

Drac moved briskly down the hall towards Dennis' quarters. Knowing the hybrid, he was probably still asleep.

"Hey, Drac!"

The count stopped at the all–too familiar voice of a large golem. He hoped he would get to his grandson without being interrupted but like always, somethings were too much to ask for. He put on a smug grin and turned to face the golem coming down the hall. "Ah Frank, I see you've arrived early."

"You bet we did! Eunice got us some seats on the first Vulture Wing going out for Transylvania, though I think Wayne and Wanda might be stuck using one of those big cabs."

Dracula rubbed his chin. "Hmm yes, I heard the situation was hectic their way. So, how is Jake faring?"

"Oh man he can't wait to be back with his old friends, that's all he talked about this last month."

"You know it's only temporary, right?"

"Yeah yeah, at least he gets to see his old squad again before going off to the frontier."

Drac smiled, the Guardian Squad truly had an unbreakable bond. "I'm sure Dennisovich would be eggar to see him too."

"Say, how's that squirt been? Last I heard you gave him the promotion of his life."

"He's been his usual cocky self, even more so since he found out he's becoming count."

Frank let out a triumphant laugh. "Ha! You better not let that power go to his head. What about you? Retirement?"

"Me!? No, I think I'll go see the world now that it's under the new order, I already have my bags and My personal Vulture Wing ready."

"Oh." Frank's right eye dipped but he kept his enthusiastic cast. "Well one place you should totally check out is New Cairo, Murray really has that place bangin'."

"Indeed." Drac turned and was going to continue down the hall. "I have to wake Dennisovich, you and the others make yourselves at home."

"You're looking for her again, aren't you?"

The count stopped and tensed, frozen in his boots. There was no point in avoiding it anymore. Slowly, he turned and looked the golem in the eye who now wore a slight frown. "She's still out their… alive, I can feel her."

Frank looked down and rubbed the back of his neck. He knew there was something off about his friend stepping down so fast from his position, but now he knew everything. "I don't know man, I mean you think she would have came back already if she was alive."

"She's a Dracula Frank, we don't die we come back stronger."

"I'm just saying man, between the war and reports of human marauders the odds of her alive are pretty slim, not to even mention the Dark Brood still have it out for us."

"She IS alive, and I will find her this time and bring her home."

Frank winced when he met his friend's icy stare, those eyes of metal he was familiar with during the war. "Well," he sighed, regaining his speech. "Me, Wayne, and I'm sure Griffin would lend a hand. I know Murray has his hands tied with Sahara but I can call him for resources."

"Thanks but no thanks, I have to do this discreetly and I can't do that with the pack in tow."

"Alright man, we—"

"FRANK! You left me again you bastard!" The enraged voice of Eunice echoed throughout the halls.

The golem's eyes grew wide. "Oh shi. . I better go." He turned and sped down the opposite hall which was quite comical given his size. He turned one last time at his friend, "let us know if you change your mind!"

Drac nodded before Frank disappeared around a corner and gave a collective sigh of relief. Though he appreciated his old friends, they were a real drag on him recently. He didn't know if it was his age or the war.

He resumed his stroll towards the end of the corridor, glancing at the electric lamps every now and then. One of the few 'sorceress' technologies he appreciated.

Drac now stood in front of the door belonging to a Dennisovich Dracula. He pressed the top button on a pad just above the handle, a small tone played after and repeated for a few seconds. No response and no sound came from inside. He pulled back on the handle which was thankfully unlocked, sparing him the trouble from having to use the master key.

Drac pushed open the door to reveal a spacious and messy room. CDs and game cases lay scattered on one side and some empty soda cans and dorito bags on the other. The count just shook his head at the sight. "_Being a hero, you'd think the boy would have a little more integrity."_

His eyes moved to the stylish coffin against the back wall and he made his way to it. He knocked on it's smooth surface once.

"Count Dennisovich, you can't run a city if you're not up in time to run it," Drac called out.

Again, he got no response. He opened the lid to reveal an empty coffin. A devious smile spread across his scarred face, he knew exactly what was going on. Closing the lid, he looked over the room. "Oh Dennisovich, you know you can't best me at this game."

Drac began to stalk the room and just like a Pike in murky water, kept his predatory eyes open for the telltale shimmering of prey. He thought he saw a glimmer out of the corner of his eye but continued like he hadn't.

"You know boy, I was half your age when Vlad drilled this tactic into me." Drac taunted.

He froze before the window, and scanned the entire room. That's when he saw it, just a tiny shift of dust move on the floor.

_CRUNCH!_

A dorito bag went flat. Drac grinned, the boy done goofed.

With a swift motion, Drac snatched at the air above the bag. He caught nothing.

"Why you little—" he snatched again, this time in the air above him. He felt something small squirm in his grasp and looked to see a bat materialize into reality, still flapping it's wings. "You've gotten better with your reflexes, but you've still yet to master the cloak."

The bat wriggled free and flew out in front of Drac where it transformed into a rather handsome nineteen year old hybrid. Dennis maintained his small frame from childhood but was physical fit compared to his father, it was hard for Drac to believe Winnie had few inches on him. That was contributed to him losing his locks. His hair was now an utter bedraggled mess and had a small goatee on his chin.

"Oh come on dude, you're so predictable and I had everything planned out."

"That may be true," Drac couldn't lie about that. "But your movements are too erratic, even the slightest shift could give you away. Oh yeah, and what did I tell you about this 'dude' crap?"

Dennis looked down in defeat, still wearing his arrogant smirk. "Whoops. . won't happen again chief."

Drac rolled his eyes at his grandson's attitude. "Boy, if you ever want to get as good as your Papa Drac I'd suggest you start taking your training more seriously, and it wouldn't hurt to pick up your room."

"I'm already good, and it's not my fault Vlad's an old fart that forgets half the stuff he teaches."

Drac simply shook his head and face palmed. "Sure you're good, for Bela and Dark Brood hooligans but Lillith help you if you encounter an adversary on my level."

Dennis waved him off. "I'll have Winnie with me. Doubt she'll let anything happen to me, and together we're like fuckin' invi—"

"Dennisovich! Unless that tongue of yours gets cleaned, I might reconsider my decision."

The hybrid's smile disappeared. Those words along with Drac's steel tone was enough for him to quiet down and listen. "Whoa sheesh, alright, I'll tone it down on the language."

"Good my boy," Drac's gaze lightened a bit. "The C–day parade starts in a couple of hours, I suggest you shower up and be ready for our motorcades."

Dennis gave an 'ok' sign before turning for his personal bath room. "Be ready before you I bet."

"Oh please," Drac sighed. "And please do something with that hair!"

Dennis could be heard grumbling something incoherent before shutting the door.

Drac deeply exhaled before moving over to the window and gazed out over his city. Night had fallen over New Transylvania and the streets were now lit with activity. This was to be his grandson's city soon and he would be lying if he said he had full confidence in him. There was no point in worrying now, the decision was made and he knew that whatever's going to happen will happen.

**Well that's it folks, the start of what would hopefully be my last HT fic before I work on another series. The time this story starts in is March 10, 2030 and I actually have a timeline I've been working on to show what happened with the world in the previous years. I'll have it in the bottom of the next chapter which should be out next month.**


	2. C–day

** Disclaimer: I don't own anyone here, Sony Pictures Animation does. My OCs are mine.**

**Chapter Two**

"Come on you stubborn piece of shi. . stay down," Dennis growled as he tried to smooth out his hair. Try as he might, one little strand would always stick up at the top. "I swear I'm buzzing this shit off tomorrow."

"Or you could just let your locks grow back out."

The hybrid didn't even flinch from the feminine voice behind him. He saw the head of a she–wolf peeking around him through the mirror, a smirk present on her muzzle.

"Yeah, or YOU could just knock on the door next time."

Winnie couldn't help but giggle at that retort. Dennis could be hard as a rock sometimes but she knew inside he was all squishy for her, after all they did zing the night they locked Bela away for good.

"Aww, is my lil Denny havin' a tuff night?" The werewolf teased.

"Seriously, what if I was in the shower?"

"That'd make my night."

Dennis lightly blushed, he fell right in to that one. A smile tugged on his lips. "Yeah, bet that would."

"Hey, it's not my fault this girl has standards."

The hybrid chuckled and combed the top of his hair one more time, the strand still stuck up.

"Here, let me help." Winnie licked her pointer and successfully smoothed down the strand of hair.

"Thanks Winn."

"No problem zing."

Dennis relaxed his shoulders. That was it, he was now ready in his nice platinum–buckled black uniform with his apprentice cape. Winnie had on similar attire except for her it was a long sleeved dress. She moved over and put her arm around her zing, "so, what's up?"

"Nothing," Dennis sighed.

"Really?" Winnie tried to look into his eyes, but he kept his head down. Something was clearly bothering him.

"You know Winn, I thought becoming Count was something to really look forward to but with all this stuff Papa Drac piled onto me, I don't know anymore."

"Mmm." Winnie thought, trying to come up with something for her friend. "It couldn't be no worse than my job at the embassy, you have to sit through meetings and attend parties and banquets."

Dennis knew it was no doubt more complicated than that, an ambassador was one thing but a count was entirely different. "I don't know, it just feels like it's too soon you know, like I should be enjoying my young life a little more."

Winnie started massaging his shoulders, much to his pleasure. "We'll be young for a good while Dennis, I'm sure we could find time for ourselves."

Dennis brightened a bit. She was right, they had hit their immortal spurt a year ago and would look eighteen for at least a century. But with all the recent trouble beyond the walls, he only hoped they would stay alive to see the years through.

"Yeah I'm sure you're right, you always know what to say don't you?"

"This is me you're talking to."

The two stood there for a few more seconds. Dennis adjusted the collar on his uniform while Winnie eased down on the massaging.

"Ya know," Winnie began to coo. "I know something that can clear that head of yours one–hundred percent."

The hybrid looked over his shoulder, right into those lustfull blue eyes of his zing. "And what might that be?"

A sly grin creeked along her muzzle, exposing her sharp canines. She nodded over to the bedroom, "we still have some time before Val gets here."

Dennis' heart skipped a bit and beads of sweat started to form as he caught the gist of her words. As much as he wanted to give in to that dark temptation and feel that familiar pleasure, he knew now wasn't the time.

"As much as I'd like some fun with my favorite lycan, I'd hate to get this uniform wrinkly."

Winnie put on a fake pouty face as she spun her zing around to face her. She kept a firm finger on his chest, staring in his eyes. "It'll be a fast one, just enough to crease the bed."

The young hybrid couldn't lie, she was very hard to resist like that. But pissed off Drac was much more scarier than a turned off werewolf girl. "If I do, I won't hear the rest of it from the old man."

Winnie frowned though she understood the older vampire's wrath as well. That seductive smirk popped right back on her muzzle and she immediately placed both her hands around the back of Dennis' neck, then pulled him into a passionate kiss.

While this didn't surprise him, Dennis hadn't exactly gotten used to the motion either. He just went with the flow of her tongue as they explored each other's mouths. It was when he took in the scent of her perfumed fur that he thought, "_I hope this can hold me till our next free day we get."_

Their lips parted. Winnie kept her steamy gaze locked on the hybrid's. "Maybe tonight… after the celebration?"

"Definitely."

"I'll hold you to that," Winnie murmured as she looked over her zing's uniform. She noticed the platinum Honor Medal on the right side of his chest leaning slightly and straightened it for him, then gave him a smile of approval.

He was also doing the same thing to her and found a loose strand of fabric hanging off the low of her dress. In a precise movement, Dennis reached down and pinched it off.

"Hey, what're y— oh." Winnie's cheek fur couldn't hide her blush. "Thanks."

"We're even now."

Winnie smiled in appreciation. "Well, I'd hate to keep the rest of our squad waiting then. I'm sure Jake thinks we're doing what we were going to."

"You go ahead, I'll be right out."

Winnie gave him a weird look before nodding. "Don't be too long."

She walked out of the bathroom, blowing Dennis a kiss before disappearing. Dennis, knowing her acute hearing decided to wait until he heard the bedroom door close before muttering, "that werewolf's gonna be the end of me."

**xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Castle Transylvania was now buzzing with activity compared to what it was hours ago. Foreign leaders, tourists, and yearly visitors flocked through the halls and some were still lined up behind the counters of the main lobby.

"Man, ya think these folks would pick up the pace since they book their rooms over the phones," spoke a brawny golem as he glanced out over the lines of monsters. The son of Frank and Eunice, Jakenstein was the hard–hitter and main muscle of the Guardian Squad. His broad shoulders and strong arms could lock any monster in place. He took up mainly from his father but still had some of his mother's wittiness.

A dragging sound came from his right and he looked over from his spot on a sofa to see a girl approaching, dragging her luggage on the carpet.

"Hey Val! You're not late this time."

"Thanks to an actual good pilot," the girl breathlessly said before putting her bags down and plopping down on the edge of a sofa diagonal from Jake's. A zombie bellhop came over with a luggage cart and began to load up her bags.

"Room 34, bottom floor please," Valerie said before presenting her visitor's card.

The zombie drunkenly groaned in response before rolling the cart away from the lobby furniture.

Valerie had the outer appearance of a bi–racial human with her brown eyes, milky skin, and black hair though she was anything but human. She was a doppelgänger straight from Parallel Earth, and moved to earth when her earth–born counterpart was killed in the war. Made the fourth member of the Guardian Squad, Valerie was the tech expert and the brains of the group, often having to fix broken equipment. She can also use her Doppler ability to shape–shift into anyone close.

Jake looked over her tired features, "must've been a long flight from… where did you live at, Virginia?"

"Yeah, New Norfolk," Val yawned. "The NAL had that place fixed pretty nicely and that was where my other was from, just felt right you know."

Jake smiled and slicked back his mohawk. "Yeah I hear ya, I'm sure the love birds would be freaked to see you here early."

"Where are they actually?"

"Winnie was here but she went off to get… well speak of the devil, here they come now." Jake spotted a werewolf girl speeding to them on all fours and a black blur trailing behind. Winnie and Dennis maneuvered their way through the crowds and eventually reached the rest of their team, with the later changing form.

"Hey Dennis! How's it been man?" The rocker golem went to greet his leader with their usual hand shake.

"Alright, considering my new promotion." Dennis grabbed and shook his presented hand.

"Just rub it in why don't ya." The two slid their hands off and finished with a fist bump.

"_Oww," _Dennis slightly recoiled at the impact of Jake's fist.

"Val!" Winnie exclaimed as she dove right into the girl's arms, pulling her into a tight hug. The she–wolf had a lot of respect for the doppler. Aside from being a loyal friend, Val helped boost her confidence enough to make things work with Dennis in her teen years and was also the only other female she'll let touch him.

"Alright Winn, ease off." Val brushed her off and aggressively straightened out her dress.

"Sorry about that," Winnie giggled. "I forgot how sensitive these uniforms are."

"No it's fine," Val assured, still patting her uniform down. "Say, how did you manage to scale all the way down here on all fours without getting a single wrinkle?"

"A decade of track and balance training babe." Winnie winked.

"Ah, that's it, so I take it things between you and Dennis are going well?"

"I say it's going," Dennis suavely said as he grabbed on to Winnie's waist, causing her to blush.

Val rolled her eyes at the hybrid. "Oh hey, didn't see you there Dennis."

Dennis chuckled. "I see you haven't changed much, except we didn't have to wait for you."

"Oh hush you, I bet you still forget to charge up your sword runes before every exercise don't you?"

"Sure do." Dennis wasn't going to lie about that.

Val rolled her eyes at the hybrid, baring an amused smirk. Jake walked over with the group, "is it just me, or is the boss vamp taking his 401k a little too early?"

"Yeah, what's with that?" Val inquired to Dennis. She only just heard about Dennis' promotion on her flight.

The hybrid looked to his feet, he hoped he could have avoided this conversation. Luckily for him, Winnie answered first. "We think he might be searching for Mavis."

"Are you sure? I thought she was dead."

"We don't even know that," Dennis slightly snapped.

"Oh… my bad," Val apologized, realizing her rudeness.

"It's fine, I could barely remember her now."

"Plus whom else would Drac be looking for? It's not like him to traveling the entire planet," Winnie added, knowing her former leader to be a homebody.

"That's a good question," Jake thought out loud. "Well I hope he finds her, or at least what happened to her."

"Yeah," Val agreed. She looked back to Dennis, "you don't want to tag along?"

"I can't, not even if I wanted to. The city of New Transylvania needs a Count and vampa doesn't trust Vlad because of his past connections with the Dark Brood, so it'll be me and Winnie when she gets the time." Dennis finished and held his zing.

"Heh." Jake thought it was pretty depressing that Drac couldn't trust his own father.

"GUARDIANS, FORMATION!"

The squad froze for a second before dashing off towards the sound of the familiar sharp yell they were accustomed to. Within a few seconds they formed up in perfect cadence in front of the lobby stairs, staring straight ahead and at attention. Dennis and Winnie were up front with Val and Jake behind on either side of them.

A dark figure made his way down the staircase with much older one following. The bustling noises in the lobby have completely stopped and some of the guests stood by to watch the inspection.

"At ease," Drac ordered.

The Guardians followed and moved their feet apart, then placed their hands behind their lower backs. Drac looked them over and 'tsked' every now and then, he began to pace around them while Vlad watched them like a hawk. Just one look in his vampa's eyes told Dennis that inspecting them in the lobby was punishment for his stunt hours earlier.

Drac circled around them for a third time before approving. "Excellence is cardinal Guardians, you still have it."

The count turned to the elder for approval, who walked over. "You've made a great choice with the Dress Blacks my son, it goes well with polished platinum. They're uniforms are faultless, cadence is perfect too, all–in–all they're what I would expect of Guardians of Transylvania."

Val resisted shivering at the scratchy voice of Vlad. She was always frightened of him, even more so than the Dark Brood at times.

Vlad motioned for the garage entrance, "our motorcade is ready, might as well not keep our drivers waiting."

Drac nodded, "alright Guardians, the C–day parade starts in five so you'll fall out on me and head straight for our car."

The vampire grinned, they didn't anticipate his command. "Fall out."

The Guardians fell out of rank at as soon the last word slipped out, the four stretched and Val exhaled. They made their way to the garage with the guests cheering and clapping on their way out.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxx **

"Oh man I could get used to riding in one of these bad boys, even the back seats are huge." Jake was busy playing with the gadgets around his seat.

"Ha! they really took your size into consideration when they designed this thing," Winnie teased the Golem.

"You better not get used to it, we're going to have to do a lotta waving out the windows our whole ride."

"Dennis, the new buzz kill," Val joked.

Dennis smirked, "it'll still be you at the end of the night."

The driver's door opened and a blond haired vampire crawled in the seat. He combed back his wavy hair before cranking the ignition.

"Ahh Vanhorn, the driver of the hour," Drac greeted from the seat behind.

"You know it would be my honor to drive the great count and his protege."

"Seriously, this day wouldn't be happening if it wasn't for you."

Though it was not visible to the others, a crooked grin spread across the lips of the former human accompanied by a low chuckle. "The ANACs are moving out in front, now's the time."

With that, Vanhorn shifted to Drive and the personalized SUV began to creep forward. He looked out the front window then the rear to see if the bike escorts were ready, and drove off as soon as they signaled. Once the garage door opened, the passengers had a clear view of Main Street which ran from the castle to the edge of the city.

The city of New Transylvania was started around the forests of the former hotel and expanded on the nearby human village. For monsters the city was perfect, it had that Victorian style they were accustomed to like cobblestone roads, street lamps, and dark wood buildings but had modern technologies implemented.

Monsters of all kinds were lined past the street barriers and went wild as soon as the Dracula family vehicle became visible from the bridge. Not even the soundproof frame could block all the howling and cheering coming from the outside. The SUV's occupants were overtaken by all the bright displays and movements just below the street lamps, monsters waving Transylvania and UMA flags, the glow sticks and colored flares bouncing around, and the 'Dracula Forever' and 'F@#k Dark Brood' signs rising above the crowds.

Dennis couldn't help but laugh at the creativity of one of the signs, 'Monsters Rule and Humans Drool', showing a buffed lagoon monster standing over a coalition soldier de–limbed and on the ground drooling blood.

"Geez you're not offended by that?" Jake asked from the seat behind, noticing the graphic illustration.

"Not at all man." Dennis could really care less for humans as the memories from his father has since faded. He even laughed as he imagined that soldier as one of his cousins.

The dhampir was the first to roll down his window to start waving, a spike of energy surged through his right arm. "Wow Greem, you weren't really joking about that magic field weren't you?"

"Took me about ten tries before I got the weave perfect, it's nice to have in case any snipers or bombers get any ideas," Greem called out from the driver's seat.

"Oh wow…" Val was a bit overtaken by all the attention she received when she rolled down her window. She looked in front of her to see Winnie had about half her body out of her window. "Urm… Winnie? I don't think that's a great idea."

The werewolf couldn't hear her, she was high on life at the moment. The admiring crowd, the night air, and the smell of various kinds of meat charring on grills was send the young wolf lady into a trance.

"Winnie! Winnie!"

Her head snapped to the source of the familiar yapping. Now a preteen, Sunny was the only one of Winnie's siblings to still live with her parents. Wayne and Wanda stood behind the ecstatic wolf girl and warmly waved to their oldest daughter. Winnie blushed and waved in response, despite the slight embarrassment she was happy to see they have safely made it.

Dennis was enjoying every minute of this even though it was tiring. Every time he would wave, the crowd near him would go absolutely nuts. Feminine cheering ahead brought his attention to some rather young and striking vampire girls.

"You rule Dennis!" and "Please have my babies!" were few of the many shouts he got from them. A grin crept on the hybrid's lips as he heard shuffling coming from beside him.

Winnie's face immediately became one of an enraged wolf as soon as she laid eyes on the girls, teeth baring and everything. Drool fell from her mouth and she let out a triumphant, territorial bark. Dennis couldn't help but to start snickering at the whole scene.

"It's not funny Dennis!"

Her outburst only caused him to laugh harder. Dennis' laughter ceased when he heard the sound of wolf whistling. The SUV was coming up on a mass of werewolf veterans crowded on both sides of Main Street. There were some young ones on the left that were practically drooling at the sight of their ambassador.

Dennis tried to look away as he grew uncomfortable, but he only saw Winnie put on a flirtatious smile and blew a kiss at one of them. The male who seemed to receive it fainted and fell to the ground, causing Winnie to giggle.

The hybrid couldn't take it anymore and stuck his middle finger at the mangy mutts.

"Ha! That's what you get." Winnie teased and laughed when she saw the look on her zing's face. Dennis couldn't remain angry and started laughing with her, she got him good.

Drac smiled at the both of them in the rear view mirror, he always knew they were made for each other. The old vampire chilled and admired his city for most of the ride and waved every now and then. Just a few years ago he thought this wouldn't even be possible, to rebuild something better and admire it in peace. With all the assassination attempts and the day the nukes were launched, he thought it was over and there was going to be nothing. But as history has proven, the Dracula's survive, endure, and come back stronger than before.

He looked over at his father in the seat beside him, who was too busy pointing and winking. Drac shook his head. He couldn't even be embarrassed, the elder vampire was just trying to live out the rest of his days with a bang, even if no monster women were interested.

The SUV pulled into and parked in one of the private booths alongside the multiple types of military vehicles that were in the parade, signaling that the parade had officially came to an end. Their was partying going on in the Market District and Drac decided to let the Guardian Squad enjoy some downtown.

The vampire escorts that were driving the bikes now acted as bodyguards as they waited for the rest. Drac and Vlad were the first to file out as the Guardians followed closely.

"Hey my parents loaded me with some doe if anybody needs some." Jake presented his wallet.

"Yeah I'll definitely need some, My wallets at the castle." Val moved over to Jake.

Dennis was about to leave when he heard a voice from behind.

"So, Dennis."

The dhampir turned to see the blond agent just a few feet behind him. "Oh… hi Greem."

"Hello Dennisovich, I hear a certain someone is becoming count of New Transylvania."

"Yeah, don't know if I can best vampa but I'll certainly try."

Greem chuckled at that. In a swift movement, the turned vampire was in the hybrid's face. Winnie watched from the Booth entrance with concern, ready to jump in if need be.

"Just a friendly word of advice," Greem began in his cold voice. "Once it happens, you better hold onto everything you have, fang and claw. Seeing what Dracula had to go through I can guarantee there will be others that will try to take that from you, even hurt the ones close to you."

The two stared each other down for the longest time, Dennis was wondering just what hell his game was.

"You better run along little bat, I wouldn't keep her waiting." Greem said with his usual crooked smile.

Dennis slowly backed away, "yeah, see ya dude."

He took off in a full run to Winnie and both of them ran out to enjoy the festivities. Greem watched them like hawk, even stared at the doorway long before they left.

A buzzing coming from his suit's chest pocket snapped him out of it and he pulled the small communicator. "Yeah, I'm here."

"Be there in five," Greem confirmed to the caller before putting the comm away. He hastily made his way out of the booth.

**Alright that's it for chapter two, the next should come out next month. On a special note if anyone is interested I have the timeline for this alternative universe on my bio.**


	3. Minacious Plot

**Disclaimer: I don't own anyone here, Sony Pictures Animation does. My OCs are mine.**

**Chapter three **

A spiked haired werewolf made himself right at home on the front desk chair, his first shift rounds of the New Transylvania Dungeon was over. He kicked his feet on the desk before digging out a lighter and a cigarette from his uniform's pocket. _Why__ the hell do I need a C–day when I have Wally time?_

Wally never once thought he'd spend the rest of his immortal life as a guard for some of the most despicable trash the UMA had to offer. His social life was mostly just him and his head, since most of his brothers were killed off and the fact he didn't believe in true love. He just ran on coffee, cigs, good memories, and anything to hold the lonely numbing.

He took one puff of the lit cig and allowed the nicotine to flow through his system, then blew a perfect smoke ring before his eyes. "Nailed it that time."

The battered lycan's thoughts always brought him back to one question, how the hell was he still alive? Why was he still here while his other siblings perished in the war? Walden had his brains and Wilbur had his combat prowess, Wally guessed he had dumb luck. He didn't really believe in any higher powers but he laughed and choked it up to Odin having a different plan for him.

Wally was about to take another puff his cigarette when he heard the front door handle turn.

"Crap," he muttered and practically jack hammered the cig against the bottom of the desk. Through the lingering smoke he saw the door open to reveal the blonde vampire. _Well well, wonder what's so important that the traitor had to ruin my break for._

Greem walked over to the front desk, locking eyes with the lycan guard. He stopped in front and looked around, "receptionist not here?"

"No she's out, what do you want?" Wally grunted.

Greem presented his ID card, "I'm here to visit Inmate 12 in Cell Block D."

Wally glanced at his card, "ok. . just head out this door and down the end of–"

The werewolf stopped. He gave the turned agent an idiotic glare, then cocked his head. "The hell are you trying to play me for?"

"Excuse me?"

"Block D is where the Dark Brood and war criminals are kept, no one goes down there," Wally retorted.

Greem returned a glare of his own, "what, my Class Three ID not good enough?"

Wally emitted a growl only audible to him. Not being rude went against all of his instincts and Greem certainly was testing his patience. Nevertheless, the wolf guard decided to simply tell him off instead of risking his name tag.

"No it's not, In order to go through I'll have to call down the Warden and I don't feel like doing that so if you would be so kind to just screw off." _Eh, nice enough._

"DOWN WHELP!" A deep male voice bellowed from the entrance.

Wally immediately crouched down on his right knee, almost falling off his chair. Only an alpha could give an order of that volume and not just any alpha.

Greem looked over at the silhouette blocking the moonlight that belonged to a tall and bulky werewolf. It walked forward, the only distinct feature was it's piercing emerald eyes which was uncanny for a lycanthrope. The alpha's jet black fur glistened as he moved in the fluorescent light, patches of it were missing but the regal hide outfit he sported covered most of the bare skin and scars.

The alpha scratched his missing left ear while keeping his hard stare at the wolf guard. He chuckled, it seemed as if Wally was fighting the urge to tremble. "Up."

Wally stood up and still at the command.

"Ah Wasilei, it's not like you to be late." Greem greeted.

Wasilei grunted, "I see you haven't adjusted well to your upyr vision or you would have seen me. Wanted to see how long you could go without needing my help, I'm not surprised."

Greem shrugged, "well it's good to know the old alpha is still here, and that being the central leader of the LPN hasn't made you soft."

"Nyet! keeping the packs together is nothing compared to the war, just show them dominance, make a few examples, and the rest fall in line."

Greem turned to Wally who was still standing straight with his head lowered. "Can we visit Inmate 12 now?"

The wolf guard pressed a button on the desk terminal, "go right ahead."

"Splendid," Greem mocked. He was about to follow Wasilei out the processing doors when he stopped and smelled the air. "You should probably stop that habit, wouldn't feel too well later in your immortal life."

Wally waited until the two were through the doors and their footsteps gone from his hearing until he breathed a hefty sigh. He slumped down in the chair and held his head. He knew something was really off about this visit but what could he do? The rest of the personnel were out on C–day and the few that remained were werewolves, even the warden, they'd be useless against Wasilei.

He pulled out his phone and called the only other monster he could trust, his older brother.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxx **

Greem and Wasilei strolled past the many cells of Block A which were only misdemeanors. Most of cells were even empty aside from the occasional market thief and a few drunken slobs who partied a little too much. The main elevator was built at the back of this block and the two wasted no time getting on it. Greem pressed the button all the way to bottom of the panel which will take them to Block D.

"So Vanhorn, you're still a bit of snake to go through with this eh?"

"I still hold firm to my belief about the future for the UMA, even if my superior disagrees," Greem confirmed.

Wasilei chuckled, "I'd love to see Dracula's response."

"It's all good, I have a way to deal with him."

The lightning grew more dim as the elevator descended into the lower levels of the dungeon. Cells were now packed with violent offenders and red eyes shown through the cells that were dark.

"Hey Wasilei, you think he'll hear us out?"

The alpha thought for a moment, "Da, he has no other choice to. I know for a fact he'll listen to me, but for a turned one like yourself I can't say."

The elevator came to a smooth halt and the barred doors opened to a pitch black hallway. For extra punishment, lights were not installed on Block D. The two war associates' eyes adjusted to the limestone walls of the block, and the stinch of Dark Magic withdrawals began to fill their nostrils.

"Oy! stinks worse than a Bosha Clinic."

Wasilei was the first to walk out and Greem followed. The two scanned the silver barred cells as they made for the last door. Bat cronies glared at them through the bars, some making a few whispered remarks. A pack of ravenous werewolves were crammed in one cell and started to snarl and gnaw at the cell bars as the two walked pass, the pain they felt was obvious but they persisted.

"You can see it in their eyes can you?" Wasilei's voice sliced right through the darkness.

"What?"

"The pain, the hunger, the eagerness to hunt again, the dark arts did that to them."

"Yeah," Greem muttered and glanced behind him at cell of wolves. "They'll taste it again."

The two stopped at the door to the rear holding room that belonged to the most ruthless criminal of Transylvania. The ex agent looked over a panel and pulled out his ID card when he found the slot. As soon as the card went in, a soft buzzing sound rang through the block.

Wasilei's ear intact ear twitched. "The hell was that?"

"A glitch," Greem presented his card. "These cards were one of the last innovations by the U.S. Black Budget, now all the cameras and hidden mics will be unresponsive for an hour."

"Oy, you cold bloods and your tech."

The tungsten heavy door opened with a loud start, revealing a set of automatic silver bars. They slid down and the two walked in the cube of a room. Sitting strapped up in the center on a specialized restraining chair was none other than the head bat himself. His mouth was covered and his wings were clipped, but his glowering eyes cut at the two visitors like swords.

Greem paced over to the strapped bat. "Bela, long time no see man."

The bat didn't make an attempt to respond but only glared directly at the turned vampire.

"Cat got your tongue I see." Greem went to take his cover off and started to untie the edges. The second the cloth fell, he found himself falling back as Bela lurched forward. The bat's fangs just barely missed his neck.

"YOU!… I'd fillet you where you stand TURNED ONE! Do you even know whom you stand before!" Bela's roar echoed throughout the block.

"Um yeah, you're the wacko that got detained by a bunch of kids," Greem shot back.

Bela lurched forward again. He let out a demonic hiss as the restraints on his chair tightened, pulling him back in the chair.

"Are we done drook?"

The bat turned to the sound of the voice. "Heh Wasilei… what are you doing with this impure tool."

"Vanhorn and I have a plan that would benefit you and your Dark Brood greatly, but I think the tool would do a better job explaining this than me."

Bela's right eye flipped to the blonde vampire. "Alright, let's hear it turned."

Greem cleared his throat, "you definitely know your way around the DM Crystals and how Dark Magic has the potential to set monsters into an entirely new course, but it's long term side effects has taken it's toll on you and many other UMA veterans."

"Yeah, so?" Bela blurted.

The ex agent paced around and planned his next words. "Being considered a close friend by Dracula, I've had the courtesy of seeing him in combat, how he just soaks up all of the negative energy and uses it again and again. Even Dennis has become fluent in it's use and neither have yet to succumb to it's corruption."

Bela sank his fangs in his gums. Those names sent surges of rage throughout his body, especially the latter one. "And so what? What's your plan!?"

"I'm getting to it," Greem shut him down. "Me and a few UMA contacts of mine have been studying the crystals for the last five years, their properties, the effects of their energy. Something always seemed missing though, and I'll bet the blood of a Dracula holds the final secret."

"Well tool, I hope you have a way of catching him. I doubt you know how sacred their blood is."

"In fact I do know, I've developed a trap to get him alone but I'll need Wasilei's help for the next part," Greem nodded over to the alpha.

"Obviously you aren't familiar with C–day down here, where UMA suits and heads come down to celebrate our victory over humanity and Dracula gives his speech to the heads and what not."

"I've heard OF it, I don't know all the details."

"Well like I said before, it's a mass celebration. Only this time Dennis is expected to be appointed by the UMA heads as the new count of New Transylvania."

Bela broke in a fit of rasped laughter, "That little shit? HA! The fuck outta here with that shit."

Wasilei waited for the twisted bat to calm down before continuing, "Da, except the UMA has the power to overrule the appointed with enough votes and have Dracula remain as count, or even choose one of their own."

"Ohh, with you being one of the representatives you'll try to sway the others over." Bela was catching on, he knew Wasilei can be just as or more intimidating then him.

"Exactly Drook, everyone and their mothers expect Dennis to be appointed but if he gets overruled, it'll flip the whole city upside down. The perfect time for Greem to spring his trap."

A corrupted grin began to creep on Bela's mug. "I knew, I just knew that one day I'll get to see that little shit suffer. Where do I come in all this?"

"I've tapped into the city wide network and I found out there's a non–vocal minority that still support the Dark Brood in the northeast district, if my built in virus works and the cell doors go open… I'll need a need a monster who can rally them up." Greem answered.

"And what if the Allegiance tries to retaliate, huh?"

Wasilei looked over at the turned vampire, even he was unsure of that.

"New Transylvania, as much as it is a sanctuary it was built like a damn fortress. A magic field that surrounds the city, the largest fleet of wraith drones, and the electrical systems will all be under my control in less than sixteen hours. We'll be practically invincible."

"And even outside New Transylvania the Dark brood have a strong influence, especially with some of my packs and the legions of the Americas." Wasilei added.

Bela was now all giddy inside but he didn't dare show it. He'd have to admit that this turned vampire was smarter than he looked, well at least smart enough to know that only he could lead the Dark Brood effectively. "Well, looks like we have ourselves an uprising boys."

"Sixteen hours," Greem confirmed.

"I'll be waiting."

With that, the two left the room and closed it back up. They made their way back to the elevator.

"TOMORROW WE GET OUR CLAWS RED AGAIN BOYS!"

All around the two, Block D erupted in a series of Roars, howls, and screeches in response to Bela's shout.

On the elevator, Greem could only smile to himself as this arrangement went better than expected. Most of the monsters were still new to technology, allowing the ex agent a chance at designing the systems of New Transylvania. They weren't able to detect the built in time bomb virus Greem installed. He had everything riding on that prototype and now it was time to prepare and wait.

He looked over to the alpha. "Hey Wasilei, are you ready?"

"I still have one problem to handle, our ambassador Winnifred. She'll protect that half–bred no matter what, though she'll be easy."

"Good, one less distraction." Greem wouldn't have minded avoiding a civil conflict, but if it could buy him enough time to get the secret out of Drac then so be it.


	4. His Words

** Disclaimer: I don't own anyone here, Sony Pictures Animation does. My OCs are mine.**

**Chapter four **

As much as she tried, Winnie couldn't keep her eyes away from the clock at the bottom corner of her work terminal. She growled in frustration. The more she looked, the slower the time went by.

Her clock set to the Eastern time zone read 9:30PM, just thirty more minutes until the Anniversary Address and she'd be able to see her zing in his grand hour.

The young ambassador continued to sort through messages in her UA–net mailbox, some important and some were just cheap love tags. Nevertheless, she sorted through them in a fast pace like it was second nature. She was close to the bottom of the list and she pushed her claws even harder.

The embassy that belonged to the Lycan Pack Nations was the third largest building in the city of New Transylvania, the first being Castle Transylvania and the second being a UMA arms factory. With the LPN considered the most loyal ally to Transylvania, Dracula made sure their embassy was designed with top notch engineering just like his castle. Brown banners hung down the six–story building with a black wolf skull design at the top surrounded by nine diamond stars representing each of the packs and the skull representing the nation as a whole.

Winnie's workplace was in the central office, just up the stairs from the main lobby and across from the meeting room. It was by far the largest personal office with a large window to the right side giving a spectacular view of the streets below. She had the room decorated with all of her furnishings that the Prime Alpha would allow. Her most cherished one being a picture of her and Dennis pulled into a hug that was taken last year, it sat in a frame on the corner of her desk.

_Just three more. _Winnie sorted through the last of her messages.

"Annnd… done." She tapped the clear key on her keyboard, she was officially done for the day. She stood up and grabbed her coat from her chair.

The door opened as she struggled to get her coat on.

"Sorry, I'm not taking anymore guests till Monday." She said without even glancing behind.

"Not even a Prime Alpha?"

Winnie froze at the deep and thick Russian accent. She finished buttoning her coat, breathed for a second, then turned to face the large male.

"Oh Prime Wasilei, not at all. I–I mean yes, anything for the Alpha." The ambassador was struggling to keep it together. He'd never visited her office once and the only other time she saw him was her 'interview' in the meeting room.

"Hmmm," the alpha hummed as he looked over her anxious frame. Winnie made sure not to look him in the eye and just kept her view at his jawline. "You've been busy, yes?"

"Oh yeah, I have all media sorted through and meetings planned," Winnie answered with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.

"Good then, do you know why I've come this evening?" Wasilei trudged over to her desk and examined the workspace. He glanced over at the picture, and grimaced. _How the hell could such an exceptional female zing with such a horrid mongrel?_

"I. . I assume I've done something wrong?"

"Have you?"

Winnie's heart might as well have stopped beating, she really didn't want to lose this job. She never figured him the one to play games, but she went along with it anyway. "I think I did steal a pen from an East Asian executive two months ago."

Wasilei gave a guttural chuckle and exposed the line of his razor teeth with a grin. "Relax Winniefred, that trade deal you made with the Legion was your handiwork right?"

The ambassador nodded and gave a small smile when remembering that accomplishment.

"Exactly, though that's not why I'm here."

The alpha moved over to the window and gazed down at the city lights. Winnie resisted impatiently tapping her foot. "You do plan to leave for the address now, do you?"

"Uhh yes, that's why I was clocking out early."

"I'm afraid I have different orders for you. I'll need you to stay for the remainder of the night and I'll have one of my advisors relieve you in a few hours."

_Wha…?_

Winnie felt crushed. She was going to miss it, the first address in peacetime and the first time Dennis would take the mantle. It fully sunk in after a few moments and she was torn between crying, screaming, or tearing the whole embassy to shreds.

"May I, may I ask w–why?" She asked, slightly trembling.

"Thing is moy mily, the world now isn't a safe place. I and the pack can't insure your safety in the streets of this city."

Confused, Winnie raised her tone. "But isn't it peace time!? I mean… you can't find anyone else!?"

The alpha's good ear twitched as he heard the first rumble of thunder roll off the distant dunes. Out of the window, he saw a few sparks of lightning confirming the oncoming storm.

"You are aware of what's happening in the American Legion, yes? The Dark Brood attacks? We'll need you here just like we'll need every soldier at their post just in case they would try anything here."

"Hey, I handled the war as a cub and I handled Bela and his goons as a Guardian. I'm sure I can handle myself at the castle."

Wasilei jerked around and looked Winnie straight in the eye, freezing her in her place. He strolled forward step by step, his hard foot pads clanking against the maple floor. "Nyea, I'd rather not risk one of our nation's greatest asset. Besides, who can honestly do this job better than you can?"

Winnie ignored the alpha's attempt to flatter her. "You seriously don't expect me to stay cooped up in here, do you?"

"And you'd disobey an order from your Alpha?"

He got her there. She wanted the address, the elevation of her love, but as with the way of her nation, the Prime Alpha's word came first. Realizing her mistake, she got down on her knees, placed both her paws on the floor in front of her and glued her eyes to it. "I apologize, Prime Alpha Wasilei, guide and protector of our packs, for my disobedience. I'm ready for any punishment you deem necessary."

She heard him step forward and braced herself. She flinched when she felt his claws comb through the back of her hair, and settled on her head.

"Action forgiven, little one."

Winnie sat there a moment before standing, and gazed back at the black werewolf. He still had that corrupted grin from earlier but not on the same degree.

"I'll send an omega or something to keep you entertained, until then you can keep busy?"

She gave a weak nod. "I mean yes, I can."

"Good, that's all I ask of you."

Without another word, Wasilei strolled out of the office. Winnie thought she heard him latch the door behind but brushed it off.

Tears began to stream down the young lycan's face as she practically fell in her chair, the heartbreak and humiliation hitting her full force. _This Dark Brood crap is bullshit! It has to be!_

Winnie wiped her face and shoved those thoughts aside, there was no point to dwell. She picked up and held the picture of her and Dennis, rubbing her digits along it's hard carved frame. As of on cue, rain droplets started tapping against the window. The bottom fell out in a matter of seconds.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Good Evening," Dennis cleared his throat. "Good Evening!"

"You're gonna have to be more clear than that sonny."

Dennis glared over his shoulder at his great grandpa, "not everyone's hearing is gone ya know!"

"What!?"

The soon–to–be count just grunted and continued reading the scroll Dracula wrote for the first speech last year, he didn't know if Vlad was serious or just messing with him. He'd been in his room reading over the scroll for nearly three hours now. Vlad was over by his bookshelf keeping himself busy.

"It is… it is imperative that we, creatures of the night, look to our future rather than our past, because we're so freakin' awesome!"

"That's not part of the address Dennisovich!" Vlad blurted.

"I was joking Vlad."

Dennis read over the last part of the scroll which started with denouncing the Dark Brood and their violent 'Ascension Theory'. He couldn't shake the nervous pit that was in his stomach though, no matter how hard he tried to immerse himself fully in the scroll. His squad was going to be there, Allegiance leaders, Dracula, And Winnie.

_Beep! Beep!_

The hybrid looked down at his wrist and pulled back his uniform sleeve, it was time. He clicked the alarm off and looked over at Vlad. "Five minutes till."

"Then let us not keep them waiting boy." Vlad put the book he was reading back on the shelf and followed Dennis out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Once they were out in the main hall, the two kin tried to move at a brisk pace towards the castle's auditorium. The halls were mostly empty except for the suits of armor and a few straggling guests.

Those moths that were flying around in the hybrid's stomach were now tenfold, this was going to be the longest five minutes of his life. He tried in vain to keep his anxiety to a manageable level. He didn't know it but he was visible shaking, Vlad easily noticed. "No point in getting nervous now Dennisovich, not with all of that reading and the rehearsal a few nights back."

"Sure," was all Dennis could utter. The old vampire just had no clue that the real thing would be much different.

Dennis took in a deep breath as he and Vlad turned a corner in the main hall, and there it was, that big oak door. Just on the other side of it, the UMA Leaders were probably already seated and waiting with bated breath for that door to open. His feet became heavier as they moved closer to the door and the pit in his stomach began to tighten. He had to take another breath.

The hybrid slowed to a stop at the auditorium door and looked over it, slowing his breathing down. His sharp eyes came upon the golden handle and reached out for it. That's when he noticed his trembling hand and took one last deep breath. He tried to listen closely to see if he heard anything on the other side but Vlad's cold voice cutting in stopped that.

"What are you waiting for?"

Dennis grabbed the cold metal and began to pull down. In a few seconds, he was able to rehearse the hardest parts of the scroll in his head which calmed him even more. He remembered some cheap words of advice Greem taught him in the caverns like '_embrace the suck Dennis, embrace it', _but he always would go off his on advice when doing something like this… _fuck it!_

He opened the door, the large room immediately came alive with clapping and cheering. Dennis allowed his vision to adjust to the bright camera lights before side gazing out towards the audience. There are approximately 620 seats in the auditorium, three sections of 200 lined along the center of the inclined room, four VIP seats on platforms on both sides of the room with their own exit doors, and lined along before the stage was the twelve evaluation seats with built in mics. Only six were occupied and the other two were spares in case new nations were formed.

In the first evaluation seat labeled 'LPN' sat Prime Alpha Wasilei. He had his arms crossed and kept his hard green eyes on Dennis with a glint of curiosity in them. In the seat next to him was King Murray, representative of the Saharan Democratic Union 'SDU'. He seemed the most lively of the leaders and even gave Dennis their usual hand greeting as he came in. Despite his title, it didn't give him all the power of the SDU.

The third seat was occupied by Shu, a type of imp known as a Kappa from Japan. He's a nervous wreck of an amphibian that constantly tries to keep the water from the pool of his head from spilling out, and was most recently elected as president of the East Asian Monster's Republic 'EAMR'. Beside him was Ruby Edward. She's a pure blood vampire like Dracula with long black hair and red eyes that shined just like her first name and is the current Prime Minister of the English Collective States, formerly the UK. Even though she was an outspoken critic of the Draculas she offered her full support to Dennis.

The last two seats made up Grongo and Hunter, both were presidents of the americas. Grongo's an old Mapinguari that was slouched in his chair, he was elected president of the South American Legion due to his time as a military officer. Though Grongo was a known bore fest, he was a stickler for the rules. Hunter on the other hand tapped his claws impatiently. He's a tall and fierce looking Wendigo and is the current president of the North American Legion.

Dennis saw Vlad as he took his seat next to Dracula on the left VIP platform and moved his eyes over to the right, Waving at Wayne, Frankenstein, and a few others he knew. He spotted his squad on the right VIP platform, well… only half. Jake puffed out his chest and gave him a thumbs up while Valerie simply smiled and gave him the peace sign, Dennis waved to them both. His heart fractured a bit when he couldn't find Winnie, though a part of him was relieved. Maybe she was with her family? If that was the case, Dennis wouldn't be able to see her.

Though he thought he wouldn't, Dennis made it to the podium. His heartbeat speed up as he placed the scroll on the podium and pulled the microphone close. He looked up to see the six leaders staring expectedly, a couple gave smiles of encouragement. The hybrid glanced left to see his vampa's impatient stare, he could hear him mentally chastising him now.

_For Lilith's sake, say something boy!_

"Testing, testing, one two three."

Laughter broke out among the civilians in the back rows. Dennis chuckled at the sight of Dracula face palming and put on a confident smile, starting from the beginning.

"Good evening creatures of the night from the seven great nations, and conclaves."

He got a few cheers from the right section. Dennis continued, speaking into the mic loud enough for the monsters in the back to hear him.

"I'd like to thank each and every one of you for coming all across the globe," Dennis looked among the leaders. "And for you great leaders, without any of you this Allegiance wouldn't simply wouldn't be."

The hybrid heard a grunt in response but didn't see the leader who emitted it. He glanced at the scroll and continued where he left off.

"This day marks one year, one year since the end of the bloodiest conflict this world has ever known. It's also been one year of peace where monsters can roam the earth without any fear, and I intend to keep it that way."

Murray, Shu, and Ruby leaned forward in interest while Hunter and Grongo seemed like they could care less. Wasilei's stare was more intense now yet he remained emotionless.

Dennis shrugged him off and cleared his throat before continuing, "The Dark Brood scourge still lurks in the shadows of the new society, striking terror in innocents and hindering our progress for the future of all monsters. And I promise our Special Intelligence and brave Allegiance volunteers will not stop until they're all plucked out and put away."

His words were met with a loud applause and follow up cheering. The Guardians joined in, Murray, even Vlad and Dracula had smiles of approval, the count in particular savored the moment. There were times during the war and even in the past year that this wouldn't come, that he'd have to remain in his old position or that he and his grandson wouldn't survive to see this. But those fears were extinguished now, now truly was the time for a new age for monsters.

A cloaked figure watched the scene with anticipation, leaning out of the back shadows. It buzzed a device next to It's ear and spoke in a hushed voice, "_it's either now or never, Wasilei."_

Dennis took in the praise as much as he could. When the noise level died down, he looked down and moved to the middle verse where he left off.

"The International Economy is growing by the day, and the planet is healing no thanks to our recent innovations in technology combined with magic. When the extremist are gone—"

"Ok, I think we've all heard enough." Wasilei abruptly stated before standing up. The alpha could feel hundreds of daggers being shot at him but he kept his head down and started slowly pacing in front of the stage. "And then what?"

"Hu–huh?" Shocked, the hybrid was still adjusting to what happened.

"Are you serious? He's not even finished yet!" Ruby blurted.

"It's a simple question really, when the Dark Brood are eradicated then what? Magic and technology alone are not enough to insure our future, you are aware of that right?"

Dennis carefully chose his response, trying not to panic. "Well… the healing process is slow and obviously we're still working out the kinks in recent tech, but I hope… _shit." _He fell right into that one.

Wasilei stopped, and looked the hybrid in the eye. "_Tsk tsk tsk,_ I'm afraid it'll take more than 'hopes' to get the UMA where it needs to be."

Murray shot up out of his chair, frustrated. He looked to the other leaders, "yo, you guys aren't gonna let him do this are you?"

"If it was a violation of the address process," Grongo croaked. "But there isn't so no."

"I say let him speak his mind," Hunter mused.

Wasilei nodded and started to pace again. "Dennisovich, June 15th of 2028 you and your unit were awarded gold stars for your actions that day, correct?"

"Yyyeah?"

"And, from the reports of the your squad mates, you lead them well?" The alpha shook his head as he gazed down. "Overseeing the well-being of an entire collective is an entirely different story than leading a reserve unit."

Dennis watched the large werewolf as he continued pacing, the hybrid's confidence completely drained. The atmosphere in the auditorium had changed completely from a hyped energy to an air of hostility. Jake had a WTF look while Val couldn't bare to look or listen anymore, Dracula kept his icy glare on the lycan. Something told him it was a mistake to support that mutt's rise to power though he refused to go and help the boy like he did in the past. _If Dennisovich wants to be count he has to handle this alone, he has to._

Wayne, Wanda, Frank, Eunice, they all watched on helplessly as their beloved dhampir they've known since his birth get berated by some borderline war criminal.

"What if a nation decides to break away or if a conclave wants to bite off more than they could chew? Or what if the humans resurge through some sorceress means?" Wasilei didn't let up. "You're a young bloodied leader, in all my 554 years hunting with packs nothing good has ever come out of you're kind."

Dennis' mind raced, he couldn't find any response despite his best efforts. He gave up hope in fear of the alpha using whatever he said against him. The auditorium became deathly silent, Ruby was the one who broke it. "You have anything else to add, Prime Alpha?"

"Nyet, for now, though I do hope you all share my same concerns." The dark werewolf took back his seat. Dennis noticed a slight smirk on his muzzle and his blood began to warm in anger.

"Dennis?"

The hybrid snapped out of his glare at Ruby's voice, "yes madam?"

"Continue please."

Dennis looked through the paragraphs and tried to pick up where he left off. He couldn't speak, no matter how hard he tried. Dennis sighed and stopped trying to break through the mental barrier. "I… can't, . . . . It's no use."

A rumble of thunder echoed throughout the large room and cut the silence. He couldn't look up, the shame was too great. He could already see that disappointed look on Drac's face, that look he unfortunately knew well. This was his only chance and he blew it big time, he just knew.

_Smack!_

The loud and wet sound came from Hunter. Being the hungry cannibal he was he'd bitten off a piece of his own arm. "Think we should go head' and place our votes," he said between chewing.

"Whoa, he. . you guys can't do this now!"

"Murray I'd rather this be over sooner than later." Hunter shot down the mummy and was clearly looking forward to the end of this show.

"Hate to say it but we have to if he won't speak," Ruby solemnly agreed. She adjusted an amplifier on the panel of the arm of her chair. "Current count, opinions before we start?"

"None," Drac's response registering as a mutter. The voice cut through Dennis and scratched at his heart, that hurt him more than the shameful silence.

Chattering spread throughout the rows of monsters and wasn't long before it morphed into yells of outrage. Creatures were beginning to stand and crawl over seats to get to the front row. Wasilei and Hunter didn't look concerned at all while the others looked anxiously for the nearest exit, Shu especially.

"SIT DOWN! THIS SUMMIT ISNT OVER!" Vlad yelled as loud as his old voice would allow. The auditorium was almost instantly quiet. The rowdy monsters crawled back to their seats, Vlad might be old but he still invoked fear in most other monsters.

Drac had a panel on his chair just like the front seats and pressed a tab on a small screen, enabling the leaders to vote. Despite the criticism his grandson was facing and knowing there was a good chance he was going to have to remain count for some time, he kept his cool and followed protocol as the host. "Voting tab is now enabled, representatives may cast their votes starting from left to right."

He said that in a monotonous voice, which sounded strange given his Romanian accent. Ruby was the first to speak, "Dennis, you need at least four votes of approval to be selected, four votes of unapproval will have you casted down, and a tie will be handed down to the Lower Council in order to break the stalemate. Are you ready?"

Dennis' head still hung low and hadn't looked up once. "…yeah."

Without another word, Ruby sat back and watched the panel's touchscreen. The votes popped up one at a time and she cast her's when it was her time.

LPN: Unapproved

SDU: Approved

EAMR: ………

ECS: Approved

SAL: Unapproved

NAL: Unapproved

"All votes counted, two for yay and three for nay, one undecided."

All eyes fell on Shu. The amphibian buckled and shrunk in his seat, water spilling off his head as he twitched violently. The poor imp saw this coming even after prepping for the best and considered resigning after this.

"Chair three, please vote."

Shu jumped at Drac's voice. He made the mistake of looking around at the other leaders. Murray and Ruby had pleading faces while Hunter wore a scowl, Grongo looked as if was going to sleep. It was when he looked into Wasilei's emeralds that said '_don't make this a stalemate or you'll regret it' _that he slammed down on the screen without thinking.

"All votes tallied, Dennis…" Ruby trailed off. "I'm afraid the UMA see's you as unfit to oversee, Dracula, will you please—"

"Yes… yeah, I will." Despite the disappointment, he was still somewhat proud of his grandson. He stood up there in the flames and didn't run off like he half expected him to. Sadness took him over as he thought about his sweet blood–bat, the search would have to wait a bit longer.

Dennis himself felt like a ton of bricks fell on him and was crushing under the weight. He didn't know why though, why it affected him like this. A sinking feeling down below told him he was going to lose, right when that mutt interrupted him. He guessed it finally sunk in now that he won't be count, won't see his new age, or won't make his vampa proud like he truly wanted.

The two guardians weren't faring any better. Val looked as if she was going to break down crying at any second while Jake sadly slumped in his chair. It killed them, seeing their former leader and friend in a weakened state like this.

"_Democracy at it's finest," _spoke the cloaked figure. Monsters seated on the sides were starting to get up and leave in protest and it used this opportunity to leave with them. _Just three minutes till showtime._

_"_Very well then, I will resume my role as count and continue to direct the Allegiance as I see fit."

When those last words were spoken from the count, the monsters that hadn't stood up to leave were trampling over the seats trying to get to the front. Yelling, cursing, roaring, it started with the back rows then the middle rows caught on. Screams could be heard from the monsters that couldn't get out of the way in time. They wouldn't be able to see their new count in action, to see progression, and they wanted retribution. Drac held them together for a long time sure, but his ambition just wasn't doing it anymore.

Vlad thought the uproar to be rather distasteful and flipped a switch on his chair panel. Suits of armor came out of the side exits by the dozens and quickly filed between the leaders and the incoming mob, silver swords drawn.

The hybrid finally looked up to see the seen unfolding. He noticed that the leaders weren't focused on him anymore and that most of the monsters he knew had left. As much as he disliked the thought of running like he did when he was a kid, it's what his dhampir instincts were telling him to do. The yelling had intensified after the approach of the suits and Dennis decided it was time.

He switched into his bat form and booked it, right out the grand back door he came out of. He managed to get about halfway down the hall before anger, anger took him over. A part of him wanted to go back in there and join those monsters in ripping the alpha a new one. Instead, he remembered he carried the scroll out with him and tossed it in the air.

"Fuck this damn scroll!" He grunted as he flew around madly tearing at the paper. "Fuck the damn allegiance and fuck the Dark Brood!" _And who's even dumb enough to believe that humans still exist!?_

"Dennisovich! Wait!" The bat zooming after him called out.

Dennis hovered there, flapping his wings. He waited for the inevitable storm of a pissed off Dracula. The pieces of the scroll glided to the floor.

Drac transformed when he made it to Dennis and the latter did the same. The count frowned when he saw his torn up handwritten paper and Dennis looked down in regret. The boy flinched when he felt the hand on his shoulder.

"It's not your fault you know."

"I–I mean it is though," Dennis started as he picked up the torn pieces, his voice starting to crack. "How the hell am I supposed to run this place if I can't even…"

"Listen boy. You couldn't have expected that flea bag to do such a thing. Hell it even took me off guard." Drac tried to lighten him but to no avail.

"Sure it did." Dennis turned and was going to continue down the hall but Drac's hand stopped him.

"Learn from this Dennisovich," Drac ordered. He let off of his shoulder. "Learn from this so you can be ready for the next evaluation."

Dennis didn't say anything. He kept an empty stare down the hall.

Drac heaved out a heavy sigh and rubbed his temples. "Look, go somewhere and relax for now, think this over tomorrow. I have to go back in there and get this mess under control."

Everything suddenly went dark. Their natural vision quickly adjusted and they looked around confused.

"Hey pops, what was that?"

"I don't know but it caused an outage."

The castle's red emergency lights came on and an automated voice started.

"GRID DOWN, ATTEMPTING RECONNECT."

"Eh, I hate that. . thing." Drac remarked.

The lights came back on and the hum of power started flowing.

"RECONNECTION SUCCESSFUL, POWER RESTORED… UNKNOWN ERROR."

**_Boom!_**

The distant explosion rocked through both of them. Drac thought it was just his shellshock but he Dennis reacted to it as well. It wasn't long after that that street sirens started to blare.

"I don't think that was thunder, do you remember what do?"

Dennis turned to his vampa, panicked and confused. "Yea. . I mean yes!"

"Are sure!?"

"Yeah yeah, I got it, go to my room and arm up."

"Good," Drac switched to his bat form. "I'll go see what's going on, once you're armed go see if you can find your squad. Meeting point's in the courtyard."

Drac turned and shot off back to the auditorium, "stay safe Dennisovich!"

_I always do._

Dennis did the same thing and flew down the hall to his bedroom. His heart was now pumping with adrenaline and he put the past shame aside. He filled with excitement at the thought of beating the hell out of whatever these opponents were, he got even more excited when he thought of taking his pent up anger on them.


	5. Betrayal, Part 1

**Note to guest: I don't plan to have Mavis show up till the later part of the story as this mainly focuses on Dennis, Winnie, and their friends.**

**Warning: This chapter contains blood, gore, and death.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anyone here, Sony Pictures Animation does. My OCs are mine.**

**Chapter five**

**Transylvania Dungeon, five minutes earlier **

Wally paced around on Cell Block B. His shift had begun nearly two hours ago and he was already sick of this place.

As he glanced around in the cells he thought back to the incident yesterday and the phone call with Wilbur. He knew the reject and the alpha were up to something though he knew it couldn't be good with the vibe he got from them. What put him on edge even more was his brother. _"Okay… Just keep your guard up and I'll get ready," _was all he said. _Get ready for what? What the hell?_

The werewolf guard put the troubling thoughts aside and continued his stroll. Perhaps they were on some secret mission that involved the safeguard of Transylvania, and needed to do some interrogation. Or maybe they were down there for some intelligence, intelligence for what? Either way Wally tried to put it, it just didn't feel right to him.

"Ay Wallo! I 'ave a present for ya, fur ball!" A prisoner called from one of the far cells.

Block B was full of not-so minor offenders including expert thieves, capital vandals, second degree murderers, and others who weren't violent enough to be thrown down in Block C. This one in particular inmate had it out for Wally, and was quite infamous throughout the upper blocks. He was a slime monster who simply referred to himself as Henry, and was one disgusting character.

Wally paced closer to the blob's cell, glancing in the other cells when he could. Just as he neared the bars a slime bomb detonated, flinging green mucus on the bars, floor, and railings. He just managed to avoid the main blow by jumping back, though some still splashed on the leg of his pants.

Henry snorted and gave an amused chortle at the sight of Wally's glare. "What's wrong mate, did I splash ye a little?" He was struggling to keep from all out hysterical laughter.

"That just got you another year in here, you know?" Wally returned to his nonchalant look, "and you're cleaning it up later."

"Eh, whatever. Say how's that sister of your's? I'd sure like to show her a thing or…"

Wally snatched out his Tac Light from the war and high beamed it directly into the blob's eyes. Dungeon guards weren't issued any flashlights but Wally kept his as he found it pretty entertaining to torture prisoners, especially Henry.

"Gah! Piss off!" Henry tried to cover his eyes but to no use. The LED rays reflected off the particles in his jello body and lit him like a lime Christmas tree. "So you pulling that one on me, eh?"

The wolf guard smirked at his handiwork. He was almost tempted to melt him into a puddle, but then he'd probably have to clean it up. Once he had his fun much to Henry's agony, Wally clicked off his light and placed it back in his pocket. He turned and started his stroll back down his side of Block B.

"Hey I'll tell the Warden mate!" Henry taunted after him.

"Good luck with that."

**_Flip_**

Wally froze, the entire dungeon went dark as in pitch black. He looked around confused and bewildered, this has to be the first outage the dungeon ever had. As soon as the lights came back on, he heard the sound a guard never wanted to hear.

**_Beeeeeep!_**

The loud buzzards echoed throughout the dungeon as the lights above the automated cells switched from red, to green. Block by block the cell doors opened, starting from Block C. Shouts and roars echoed from the lower levels and Wally ran over to the rail and looked down. He saw the guards get overtaken a few levels down and hordes of monsters making for the stairs. At the bottom he saw red eyes moving closer, and closer, then he jumped back as several bat cronies flew to the upper levels.

"FREEDOM… VENGEANCE!"

_Ah shit! Bella! _

Wally did the only thing he could at that point and ran, past the monsters, past his fellow guards.

He couldn't hear anything, just the sound of his own heartbeat. He could see other guards fall to the floor in his peripheral but kept his vision focused on the stairs.

Maybe his brother was right, maybe he was a coward. Maybe that's how he survived the war and how he'll survive this. Or maybe he knew he couldn't do anything to help, that's what he'd like to think at least. He cleared his head and got down on all fours to a sprint and made it up the stairs in no time.

He didn't stop there. Wally did the only thing he thought he could do to help and ran for the alarm, and pulled it down. With the alarm now blaring he hoped that would spare a few guards on break.

Wally burst through the door in the main lobby and shot his eyes to the front desk, it was empty. He thought the area must have been cleared out when the alarm went off and he thanked Odin for that.

Wally then made a break for the main entrance, hearing the roaring right behind him as he went through the double doors. Now in the streets, the werewolf guard took a moment To catch his breath and bent down on his knees panting. The smell of smoke brought his attention up and gasped. The LPN Embassy was up in flames.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Dennis made it to his room and rushed inside. He flew to the center of the room and changed form. His eyes immediately darted to his coffin and found what they were looking for just above it, the Dracula family's sword.

He rushed over and took it off the hanger, then unsheathed the blade and inspected it. The edges were still beyond razor sharp just liked he left it a year ago. It was when he saw the runes carved in the lower end glow a deep violet, that he knew. He felt a jolt of energy move up his arm, leaving it temporarily numb. This blade was thirsty for blood.

The family sword or Lilith's Protector, was an old bronze blade smithed during the later years of the Babylonian Kingdom. It's design was created by Lilith, an old demon and considered to be the mother of all vampires who didn't stop until it was perfected. She later bequeathed it to the first Dracula before he led the other vampires up north throughout Europe. Sure, a bronze sword didn't seem like much to today's standard but it was light and extremely sharp which was perfect for a skilled user. Not to mention Lilith's runes made it unbreakable and gave it the ability to kill virtually anything.

Dennis studied it for any blemishes before sheathing it and moved over to his dresser. He rummaged around until he found all pieces of his Guardian Covert Uniform and his cloak. He then changed out of his dress black uniform, attaching his scabbard to his belt.

**_Clash!_**

The bedroom window shattered inward. Dennis ducked as glass shards flew all over the room before looking up to see the perpetrator.

"You're mine now you little shit!"

It was one of Bella's cronies, but he could tell it wasn't the bat creature himself. It's red eyes were burning with fury and it scraped it's claws against the floor. "You're friends are already dead… and you're joinin' them."

He knew it was just a play, it's what the Dark Brood were good at. Dennis had his sword ready and returned the hard stare into the red eyes. The beast charged.

Dennis waited and charged forward once the creature was in the center of his room. It glided towards the dhampir and slashed it's left wing in a way that certainly would've took the boy's head off, but Dennis dogged it right at the last second. These guys were so predictable.

The large bat grinned with sadistic admiration, "you're good, twirp." It charged forward again and kept low this time.

Time seemed to slow for the hybrid as he looked for a window to end this. He had to be fast and low, and flawless. He ducked as low as he could when it was a few feet away.

"YOUR LUCK'S DRY K–"

_Sleek!_

The creature was silenced.

Dennis looked over his shoulder to see the limped body cramped against the lower side of the window. Blood started to pool around on the carpet around it and a bloody stump sat where it's head used to be, he assumed it must have been launched out of the shattered window. He looked down at the sword to see streams of blood starting to drip, the runes flashed in an excited manor.

Dennis walked over to the dead monster and lifted it's wing. With two rubs on it's wing he managed to get the blood off, then sheathed his sword. _One down, probably a thousand more to go._

Before leaving his room, Dennis retrieved one last thing from his nightstand. His tactical CDRU, Communication and Data Retrieval Unit. One of the earliest yet effective technologies developed by the UMA, it resembled a smart watch with an oversized screen that acted as a Communicator, GPS, and Data Scanner all in one. Not only was it resistant to water and EMPs, it's screen is capable of withstanding a shot from a high powered rifle at long range.

He strapped it on his lower arm and booted it up. A small load icon appeared before it quickly vanished. DEVICE FULLY CHARGED… NO ERROR DETECTED, the screen read before switching to the cyan and black home screen.

"Good." Dennis switched it into low power, now it was time to find the others. He headed out of the room before more unfriendly guests decided to show up and took the shortest route that would lead him to the courtyard.

As Dennis ran down the halls, he thought back to bat he'd just killed. He really didn't feel anything at the moment but now his heart had an aching pain to it, maybe that creature was a nice guy at some point in his life. He'd only killed five other monsters in his life and each one weighed on him. He couldn't imagine what his grandpa felt with all the monsters he killed in the past.

In Guardian training, the first thing they'll tell you was to not be afraid to take a life, even a monster's. Protecting the objective came before all else, Your life, and the lives of others or else there would be nothing left. This was hard for non–corrupted monsters to fathom since unlike most humans they heavily valued the lives of other immortal creatures. A monster comes into the world under the comfort of night and has the whole future to look forward to, that could all be taken away with one douse of holy flames or a stab of silver. Dennis thought that maybe that was why most of the later Guardian recruits didn't make it, they were unwilling to take a life of another monster.

Dennis shook his head of the thoughts but a part of them were still latched. Regardless, he pressed on down the main until he reached the entrance of a smaller service hall. As he looked around, he found it strange he hadn't ran into anyone else, no suits of armor, no Dark Brood, no nothing. He could now hear the echoes of gunshots and the distant explosions but most of them sounded like they came from outside, or towards the auditorium.

He darted down the service hall and looked straight ahead for the stairs that led him to the courtyard. As the stairs came into view, so did two armed figures.

Dennis slid to a stop just meters away, and tried to identify them. They were… Allegiance soldiers, he recognized their combat uniforms. One vampire and one werewolf, both armed with ARs and all decked out in Kevlar. Their rifles were drawn but they kept their muzzles lowered once the started to approach the lone guardian.

"Dennis, are you alone?" The vampire asked, his voice demanding and eyes like steel.

Dennis was confused. Why would Allegiance troops be looking for him? And where's the rest of them? "Hey, where's the rest of y–"

"I said are you alone?" The vampire snapped, cutting him off.

"What do you think!?" Dennis waved around behind himself.

"I guess so," the werewolf grunted. He then started to raise his rifle, pointing it right at his chest. The vampire copied his motion but before he could get his muzzle straight, Dennis flew up like a little black dot. His instincts kicked in at the last second and he switched form.

They started shooting.

Dennis flew up and around the ceiling as the bullets wizzed by him. Why the hell were they firing!? Could they not tell it was him!? That couldn't be it, one of them even knew his name. Maybe they were after him for some reason but why?

He turned and flew back to the stairs and shot a quick glance down. That was when he saw it, their eyes, corruption. They weren't trying to kill him because they were ordered to, they wanted to. These imposters were Dark Brood all right.

Their was an archway in the ceiling just above the hall before it fed out into the stairs. Dennis flew around the back side of it and got a good foothold in the corner before switching form. He unsheathed his sword and looked down to the stairs in anticipation. One of them was still firing as the rounds hit the incline in front of him, most likely trying to keep him suppressed in that position. However, he could hear footsteps from the other as they came to finish him.

He waited until the steps were just below him before he let go.

He felt his entire body weight lurch as he fell on top of them, sword pointed down. He jumped back up to see it was the vampire. His neck was gashed in half and blood was practically pouring out of the wound. Dennis could hear the pitiful coughs coming from him as he choked on his own blood. In a futile effort, he tried to claw up to the boy but fell weakly from blood loss.

His attention turned to the werewolf that was now charging full speed on all fours. He must've emptied his mag and decided to say 'fuck it, let's avenge my comrade with a good ole fashion Lycan attack'. The beast was enraged as it charged with it's muscles tensed. _An easy target._

A sickly 'crunch' was heard as Lilith's blade cracked through the ribs and right into the heart. The beast tumbled right over Dennis with a 'swish' as the blade retracted, it's lifeless body landed next to the vampire.

Dennis took a few minutes to get his bearings. Thankfully, the choking sound had stopped and the vampire's immortal life was put to an end. He finally turned to see his handiwork. Even though he sensed that sickly residue of Dark Magic, their uniforms still gave him the chills. This would be very hard to explain to the Allegiance if they force him to disclose his events during this attack.

Figuring enough time has been wasted, he turned and made his way down the stairs. _Maybe I'll leave that part out of my report._

Dennis came to the double doors at the bottom and pushed them open. He was met with cold rain, and a hail of gunfire. He ducked down beneath the door, just missing the shots that punctured above.

He flipped into his bat form and shot out into the raging storm. He was easily able to dodge the rounds as he noticed the majority of the fire wasn't focused on him, but a golem crouched behind a stone fence. There were about ten Brood all in all that were scattered behind pillars.

"Hey! Got something for you creeps right here!"

Dennis maneuvered around and glided to the golem, he knew that voice anywhere.

Jake dug his arms into the earth which cracked into a large chunk of soil. He then anchored up and hurled the boulder–sized chunk with all the strength he had. "Eat this!"

The chunk smacked into one of the pillars where a Brood was behind. A diagonal crack appeared on the base of the granite pillar, right beside the brood's head. It was too late when the vampire noticed and the whole top of the pillar collapsed, the bottom of it crushing the imposter.

_Got one! _Jake felt a sense of triumph. He peeked over the fence at the toppled pillar, yeah he's not getting up from that one. He felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Oh hiya' boss, kinda late to the party aren't ya?" Jake greeted when he saw Dennis. He looked over the bloodied sword, "or maybe the party found you."

"Seen any sign of Val or Winnie!?" Dennis yelled, trying to sound over the rain and gunfire.

"No! I just got here and all those fuckers over there ambushed me!" Jake pointed over the wall. Dennis looked over but ducked from the shots.

"Those guys are relentless aren't they!? I swear those aren't normal Dark Brood, did you see their uniforms?"

"Yeah, ran into two of them in the side hall I came out of." Dennis looked around at their surroundings. They had two escape routes, one from the service hall and one from the main hall entry just down the sidewalk. The stone fence wasn't very tall so both those options would likely get either of them killed. Dennis could pull it off in his bat form but Jake was an easy target, and as leader of the Guardian Squad like hell he was going to leave him behind. "Alright Jake, we need a game plan buddy."

Jake pulled up another chunk of the ground and hurled it over the fence. It missed it's mark, but managed to scare a brood out of cover and into a bush.

"Whoa, carful there man. Drac's gonna be pissed once he sees the courtyard."

"You see what I did there?"

Confused, Dennis took one peek over the cover. "Uh. . you scared one over to the others."

"Exactly, they're grouped up." Jake said with a devious grin. He rubbed his big hands together and energy in the form of white light began to radiate around them.

"Ohh, that new attack?"

"Yeah, the only thing I need now is a distraction."

"Got it, I'll go when they start firing again." Dennis caught on to the plan. The troops were reloading now but when they start shooting again Dennis would be able to fly out and draw their fire. Jake was actually surprised he volunteered so quickly.

_Now!_

Dennis shot up into the stormy sky and circled over the compacted imposters. They pointed their rifles up and opened fire on the flying dot of a target. No matter how hard they tried to group their shots, Dennis was just too fast as the rounds only zipped right by him. He felt the kinetic force behind the bullets skim his wing which only caused him to move faster.

Jake stood up and clinched his right fist, the energy was so built up it started to numb him. He focused on the cluster of troops still firing on Dennis and lined up his shot. He slammed his fist in the ground.

**_Wam!_**

It was almost as if thunder clapped right in the courtyard, Dennis honestly couldn't tell the difference. He looked down to see the ground in front of Jake shift up and watched as a my mini tremor made it's way just under the surface. The ground exploded just under the broods and sent them flying in multiple directions.

Stunned, Dennis hovered there for a second and looked over the bodies. They didn't appear to be moving.

He flew down and switched at the nearest group of downed soldiers. By the sense of their energy levels Dennis knew they weren't dead, but unconscious. He assumed they had a few hours or so until they were up.

Jake walked over to the hybrid. "Yeah, ya like that show huh?"

"What was that, the Earth Storm power?"

The golem flexed his muscles. "Sure is, took me the whole year after the war to master it." He looked at the crater he created. "With the enemies grouped up like that, and enough force and precision, wouldn't be surprised if they're out a day."

"Good." Dennis looked around at the other troops. "To be sure these guys aren't all from the Transylvania regiment?"

"If I had to guess, most of them are from North America or the werewolf packs. I know a lot more allegiance troops came than last year and their leaders seemed kinda off."

"Yeah." Dennis bit his lip, remembering the speech just an hour ago.

"Say, how are you holding up by the way? They sure hit you hard–"

Dennis put his hand up, stopping the golem mid sentence. "I don't want to talk about right now. Let's just wait for the ladies, then maybe."

"Oh." Jake kept a concerned eye on his friend. When he was in the auditorium, he almost felt the pure terror in Dennis. Though he knew he could never understand how that must've felt.

A vibration on Dennis' forearm brought his attention to the Tac Pad and saw there was a message on the RU's screen. In cyan letters it read, "Have orders, ANAC ready, meet in garage." The blue tab next to the message box confirmed it was a certain doppelgänger.

"Hey, you get that too boss?"

"Yeah," Dennis responded, wiping the droplets off the screen of CDRU before clicking it off. _Who gave that order? And by ANAC she meant we're leaving the city?_

"So what do we do now?"

"We go down to the garage, if she has orders from a castle brass then we have to follow them." Dennis turned and was about to lead the way but another question from Jake stopped him.

"What about Winnie?"

Dennis felt his heart drop. She wasn't at the address nor did she show up now, and he hasn't even got a message from her yet. He stopped himself from thinking right there that something happened to her earlier.

"We go anyway… I'm sure she's with Val, if not somewhere in the city." A part of him doubted it, but he held the belief she was strong enough to handle herself. "Alright, let's not waste time.

"Alright! Let's get to smashin' heads then!" Jake pounded his chest to the amusement of Dennis.

With that, the two left with Dennis leading the way to the Main Hall. From there they could navigate down to the garage.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Let me in there! now, you little bitch!"

Winnie pushed harder against her desk which was now pressed against her door, along with other items stacked in a makeshift barricade.

When Wasilei mentioned he was sending up someone to 'keep her company', she never once thought it'd be half his pack of violent brutes. Winnie stepped out one time to get some fresh air and clear her head, only to be… ambushed, by those thugs. She managed to escape back to her office but just barely.

Her dress was ripped up along the sides and lower skirt where the tried to claw and catch her. She was able to bite and slash her way out and could still taste the blood of her species. Even now they were clawing and pounding on the supposedly reinforced door, trying for some retribution. The look that was in their eyes told her they were going to do more than just rip her to shreds.

"C,mon! If you let us in, we'll give you a painless death before we tear you to pieces!"

_That's what you want, isn't?_

Winnie shook her head at their mindless howls. Her eyes started to tear up, from both the smoke and the fear. She had no clue where the fire was at but she never felt this kind of fear before. Just the thought of what they were going to do to her once they broke in sent shivers up and down her spine. With her training she could probably take out a few before they overwhelm her and–

No.

No they won't.

She shoved that aside and looked to the window. _I'll run and jump before that happens._

Winnie lifted her sleeve and decided to try one last time to get a message out to her zing. On the screen showed her last message she tried to get out, "Need help at embassy now!" She resent the message.

**…**

**Message failed to send**

"Dammit!" She cursed herself. Something hit her head, and she looked in horror at what it was on the ground. One of the hinges popped off. A black furred paw started clawing out of the loose corner.

Winnie pulled herself up once she had the courage to ease off the desk, and moved over to the window. Her picture of Dennis and a bottle of brandy sat on the frame. She grabbed the French brewed alcohol and popped the cap. Handed down from her father, she figured she'd save it for a late night with Dennis but now she had a different plan.

She dug in her back pocket for a flip–lighter she kept just in case and snatched off a dangling clunk of her dress. She then clogged the opening of the bottle to the best of her ability, leaving a loose piece of cloth to dangle. Winnie watched as the flames consumed the cloth when she lit it, this precious drink was now a weapon.

The top of the door now hung low as the second hinge busted, a couple of the brutes were already trying to squeeze through. Without thinking, she threw it.

Flames instantly engulfed the barricade and moved it's way up the wall. The brutes yelped and fell back, the clawing on the door ceased.

"Yes!" Winnie immaturely jumped in victory. Her celebration was cut short when she noticed the flames have spread up to the walls and were creeping across the carpet. Knowing she probably just screwed herself, she backed up against the window. Looks like she would have to jump sooner than later.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The guys ran into a few more Dark Brood on there way to the garage level. Thankfully, they weren't uniformed which made it easier for them to dispatch.

"Aw dude! She could be anywhere!"

Anti Nuclear Armored Carriers, the garage was still lined with them. Even the center parking lanes were still choked full of them. The massive, monster built 4x4s would be a tank without it's tracks and main gun. A remote controlled fifty cal turret sat on most of them and they were usually stocked full of weapons. Their insides were spacious and their armor was thick enough to shield against most explosives and like their name, blocks radiation.

"You go this way and I'll go there," Dennis pointed down the lane on his side.

They were about to go off until a set of headlights flashed on them. With the large shape and the sound of the engine, there was no mistake this was a carrier. But just who was in the driver's seat?

The two backed up as the vehicle creeped closer, shielding their eyes from the LED rays. They moved over to the passenger side once the carrier slowed to a stop. They figured whoever was behind the wheel was friendly since the turret was lowered.

Dennis was the first to look inside when the passenger door creeped open, and immediately drew his sword. "Who the hell are you!?"

The suited up vampire didn't respond. He just smiled and looked over at him, his face beginning to shimmer.

"Gotcha."

Dennis exhaled and mentally pained himself at the sound of feminine laughter. _Should've seen that one coming._

"Ha! The look on your face!"

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up." Dennis had to smile, she got him good. He climbed into the passenger seat. Val opened the crew hold door so Jake could enter.

"Yo Val, you gonna tell us who gave you that order?" Jake called out from the crew area. He made his way up to the cab and grabbed the top handles.

"Someone with a top brass tab, by the call sign of Stone Cold."

Dennis gave an amused grunt, what a call sign. He couldn't wait to meet whomever this may be. He remembered something, "any sign of Winnie?"

"No, but I assume she's still in the embassy, if not that then the streets." Valerie pulled up her RU.

"Why so?"

Val moved the screen closer to reveal the GPS. She pointed to the LPN Embassy where a Waving bubble seem to hover around it. "What does that look like to you guys?"

"No way that's the storm doing that," Jake said while rubbing his chin, studying the screen hard. "I'd have to say that's some kind of scrambler."

"Exactly, a portable jammer." Val boot the device off and shifted the gear to drive. The vehicle started to move down the lane. "From the looks of the waves, it's a late model one which could block out any signal. We better go now or she's finished."

"Since when did the Brood have that tech?" Dennis asked.

"They don't." Val speed up. "There's something else going on here, and it's not great."

"We kinda got that," Dennis said as he thought back to the Allegiance uniforms.

The ANAC moved through the garage corridor at a brisk pace as Val kept the speed just under 60 KM/H. They moved around a corner and up a ramp to the last corridor that would take them to the bridge. It was only when she cleared the ramp did a sinking fear become true, a blockade of troops along the exit.

"Shit," Val muttered. About halfway down the they fired upon the carrier, once again proving they weren't official. Val swerved around as the bullets bounced off the glass. "Hang on!"

Dennis pushed back in his seat and clutched it's sides while Jake crouched down and tightened his grip on the handles. They knew Val met what she said.

Val hit the gas, and she trained the front of the vehicle right in the middle of the barricade. Some of the troopers managed to jump out of the carrier's way once it smashed the plastic barriers, one werewolf wasn't so fortunate.

_Crunch!_

The ANAC's left side bounced up. The guardians winced as the heard the sound of the bones, rib cage probably.

Jake looked over his shoulder out of the rear door window and could see the shape struggling on the ground. "Man, bet that'll take awhile to heal. What do you guys think?" There was no response.

"Hey guys?"

He turned to see what they were looking at, and froze. Out of the windshield and across the bridge, one would think that the gates of hell opened right in the city of New Transylvania. The embassy, the dungeon, and some apartment buildings were all ablaze with bright gold flames. There were explosions on the streets with shock waves that could be felt through the armor. They couldn't make out any of the Transylvania Regiment, only the bat cronies and the scattering of civilians below them.

Those weren't just any flames. No, that was Bliss Fire, a tab of holy water in a jug of napalm. Made by the humans at the end of the war, it was now used widely by the Dark Brood. It could kill any monster and not only were the burns painful, they can take decades to heal. The rain certainly wasn't going to put it out.

Dennis looked in horror at the embassy. His gaze moved up to the top floor which hasn't yet been consumed in the flames. It was there he could make out some movement in the window of Winnie's office.

"Val floor it!"

She didn't have to think twice. The carrier jerked forward and went full speed down the bridge. Another checkpoint was waiting for them and once again, the bullets started flying. "Can you get on that gun for me Jake?"

"Got it." Jake stepped back into a cubby between the hold and cab, and across from the weapon locker. He crammed himself in the best he could and interfaced with a small computer. "Gun's working and loaded, kind of a tight fit though."

"Just cover us!"

Jake did as he was told and aimed the gun at the incoming barrier. Soon the cute pops of rifle shots were drowned out by the drumming of the heavy MG. It had the troops scrambling for cover off to the sides and a few of them were chopped down. There was no resistance as the cruised through the checkpoint.

"Yeah! How's that for some suppressive fire!?"

Dennis kept his eye on the figure blocking the window as they moved closer to the burning building. _C'mon please be Winnie please be Winnie._

Gripping the frame tightly, Winnie eased out onto the ledge of the window putting her left foot first.

"SSS. . AAGH!" Winnie yelped and jumped on one of the shudders. She made the mistake of looking down and saw the smoke coming from her right leg where the flames had licked her, but her eyes widened at the sight just below her. The almost blinding flames were climbing higher and blanketed the sidewalk and most of the street. The office was now in flames so there was no going back. Just one slip and that'd be the end of her.

Her attention was drawn to the heavy gunfire coming from an approaching armored vehicle, it's turret firing upward at some cronies. _Hey, the regiment!_ She started waving her arms around, if they were vampires they could help her. That turned out to be a mistake since she lost her grip.

"Noo!" She regained her grip but her beloved picture frame slipped and fell. Teary eyes watched as it vanished into the fire.

The softwood shudder she was on began to crack under her weight and it would only be a matter of time now. There was no jumping like she thought earlier, just a painful death. She took one last look at the vehicle that had now stopped at the intersection across from the embassy.

"Winnie!"

Her ears perked up, she'd recognize that voice anywhere on the planet.

"DENNIS! HELP!" She screamed through the smoke and mucus in her throat.

"Hang on! Jake, cover me!" Dennis jumped out of the passenger seat onto the hot asphalt. He got up and took flight in a flash.

Winnie weakly smiled at the sight of her zing coming to the rescue. It was almost like in her dreams how Dennis came to save her. Her knight, armed to the teeth and fully suited in the world's strongest armor fighting off creatures and humans just to claim her. Despite her sharp hearing, she failed to hear the creak of weak wood.

"NOOO!" The shudder she was on splintered from the top and stuck her arm, knocking the poor wolf girl off. She closed her eyes. It already felt like forever since her stomach lurched up and she got that weightless feeling just before her fiery death. All she felt now was the scorching friction around her body, then it started to fade and was replaced by cold pattering against her fur.

She then had the courage to open her eyes. They were met with the black of night and the outcrop of the vehicle she saw earlier, coming closer. She noticed she was elevated and looked up to see her savior. _Dennis._

Dennis toted her with all his might away from the deadly blaze. His bat form was stronger in his young adult age but Winnie's soaked and torn dress made it nearly impossible to keep a firm grip on her. He flew as close as he could to the carrier and dropped her at about six feet above the pavement. She fell to her knees coughing.

Dennis switched and immediately ran over to her, thinking he might've injured her. He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Winnie? You all good? Talk to m–"

The werewolf turned and pounced on him, pulling him into the tightest embrace they've ever had. She snuggled up to his chest and dug her claws in his back though not hard enough to puncture skin. Dennis returned the embrace, she looked like she certainly needed it.

"Dennis," Winnie choked out weakly.

He looked to his chest and saw she was eye level with him. She might've been crying by their redness and dread, the rainwater made it impossible to tell.

"Winnie," Dennis gentle rubbed her head and around her ear. "It's okay, we're all here now… it's okay."

"W–what's happening? What happened Dennis!?" Her voice was weak but the fire in it shone through. She wasn't blaming him for anything, she just wanted to know; what the hell is happening?

"Um guys, we have to go." Val's voice rang out over their RUs.

Dennis pulled himself up, helping Winnie up as well. He gave her a reassuring nudge. "I don't know who did this, but you can bet your soul I'm gonna find out."

"Yeah," was all she could say. Winnie let off of his shoulder and limped over to the ANAC. She smiled at Dennis he kept beside her. "I know you will."

Dennis decided to let Winnie have the passenger seat as he crawled into the back next to Jake, who sat cramped up in the turret control.

"Yo Dennis, you wanna take over man?"

The hybrid snickered it his awkward position, "sure thing Jake."

Jake let out a hefty sigh as he wedged himself out of the cubby, and retook his spot in the door way. Dennis sat himself comfortably and interfaced with the controls.

"Hey Winn, you ok?" Val asked.

"Yeah." She sat up straight, there was no use sulking down now. "I'm fine now."

"Looks like we're all here," Jake concluded with confidence.

"Alright." Val shifted the gear and they were off again.

They took a turn along the sign of the engulfed embassy with Main Street now leading them southwest, straight out of the city. Dennis panned the gun around as they cruised by abandoned buildings and burned out ones, he found it strange the streetlights weren't on or the fact they haven't encountered any other monsters since the embassy. Maybe they could make it out and figure out what the hell happened, that is if they didn't run into anymore resistance.

"Well, there goes my… everything." Winnie somberly noted as she saw the burning apartments coming up on the right.

"It's alright Winnie, all those are replaceable and we'll find you something else to wear."

Winnie didn't respond to Jake. She knew he was right but she'd already lost a lot, and now this. Her eyes widened, she hadn't even thought about her family. Were they even okay? Her two brothers, mom and dad, and Sunny. _Oh Sunny. _She shouldn't have to see any of this.

"I hope no one perished in there," Val commented on the apartments.

"There's still hope, I saw a line of monsters running west from my window in the embassy."

Val glanced down at the carrier's dashboard and saw there was an alert on the touchscreen. "It says here the attack started in the northeast district where the dungeon is."

"Eh, that shithole." Jake grimaced.

"Does it say anything about who's behind it? I doubt the Brood just broke out of there."

"No Dennis, it's just a local alert. But it did come from the west side of town."

"Good, maybe the regiment's entrenched there."

Val sped up and continued straight down Main Street. With any luck, they can find some of the local UMA fighters.


	6. Betrayal, Part 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own anyone here, Sony Pictures Animation does. OCs are mine.**

**Chapter six**

The ride west was a smooth one up until now as the group rolled up on destroyed cars and toppled street lamps. Val had to keep her foot close to the brake as the street became littered with debris… and bodies.

"Oh my…" Winnie stopped herself. There were no words for the view out of the window.

Utter shock took over as they looked around at all of the deceased monsters that lay across the streets and sidewalks. Most were civilians by the look of them, the very monsters they swore to protect. Some were bloodied and shot up while others looked like they were burnt alive, and some were mangled as fleshy collections of bones and chewed tissues.

Dennis winced but never turned his gaze of terror away from the monitor. Their distorted faces seemed to peer back at the hybrid through the turret cam, casting their silent judgment on him. He eventually turned the gun forward and tilted it up.

His mind went to the Dark Brood. Did they really do all of this? To their own species? He knew they were ruthless from his past experiences, but this chilled him to the core. Maybe Drac was right the first time, they shouldn't have kept them in that prison to rot, it just made them more dangerous. The count should've just executed them and this wouldn't have happened but no, he had to think about Mavis and show mercy.

The more Dennis thought about that, the shock and sadness eased out of him and was gradually replaced by a need for retribution. He grit his teeth and began clenching the steel bar along the compartment, bending it like taffy with his dhampir strength. They couldn't show any mercy now, not after seeing this. He couldn't even imagine the look that was on Winnie's face when she cut herself off. It was a natural instinct to get up and comfort his zing, but he ignored it and put his attention back on the gun. He knew he already failed in protecting the people and over his dead body was his squad going to suffer the same fate.

The ANAC kept lurching up as Val tried her best at navigating around the bodies.

"Jesus Val…" Jake broke the silence.

"Sorry, sorry."

Keeping the wheel under control proved to be a difficult task for Val's gloved hands and the ANAC didn't have the best turn radius either. Luckily for her, the road ahead started to clear up. A sense of some relief filled her as she noticed the last group of corpses were Dark Brood. "Hey, looks like our guys are holding out."

"Yeah." Jake squinted, trying to get a better look at them through the windshield. He gave an amused grunt at the sight on the street, "and it looks like they really socked it to em'."

"Hey Val, you getting anything on the radio?" Dennis called from the gun compartment.

She looked down at the two–way radio system installed above the gear shift and grabbed the microphone, clicking it on. Nothing but static and a few blared out voices came from the speaker. She tried switching to different frequencies but she got the same results. "Negative, the jammer is still active."

"Damn." Dennis thought for sure that the scrambler would have been cooked in the embassy by now. He guessed Greem was right when he said Allegiance tech was designed to last.

Winnie kept her head buried in her arms as she leaned against her door, her soaked dress still had the stench of burnt fur and smoke. She was just as torn as Dennis with the deceased civilians, even if she felt like the people of this city didn't respect her or her family like the Draculas. As a Guardian, she'd still happily give her life for their's even if they didn't care for her. And now this, their dead, she'd failed her mission just like the rest of the team. She sunk her head deeper, new tears streaming down her face fur. She felt as if those dead were probably judging her and her friends now, wherever they were.

Those thoughts instantly went away. Both her ears were twitching at a sound coming from the front of the vehicle. Winnie's sensitive ears could pick it up even though the pelting of rain against the windshield, rifle shots.

"Hey," she pointed up ahead into darkness, her voice just above a whisper. "You all hear that?"

Val took her eyes off the road for a second and squinted where Winnie was pointing. She couldn't see nor hear anything but it wasn't long until she could make out muzzle flashes further up the main road.

"Oh yeah, nice one Winn." Winnie lightened up at her friends praise. "You boys catch that? Weapon fire about a few hundred meters ahead."

Jake had to lean forward and squint but he eventually noticed it. It didn't take Dennis long with his vampire vision.

"Got it, floor it Val!" Dennis yelled. He knew that the loyal fighters were probably spread thin as it is so there was no time to waste.

The carrier sped off towards the gunfire which appeared to be more closer to the city gates. The Guardians could now make out the uniforms and it was clear they were in trouble.

"Val, stop fifty meters out!"

"I know what to do Dennis!"

_Oh boy. _Jake held onto to the bars and waited for the inevitable slam on brakes.

Val hit the brakes just before a small battle. Through the rain they could make out a squad of UMA troops duking it out with a flock of bat cronies. They had apparently ran out of ammunition by the time they arrived and were now using their teeth and claws.

Dennis focused his vision on the monitor, making sure to line the gun reticles just right. The last thing he needed on his resume was a friendly killing.

Val noticed the various species of uniformed monsters were now overwhelmed and the cronies were converging on the downed monsters. "Dennis! What are you waiting…" Her voice was cut out by turret fire.

Dennis started from the last crony and moved the gun over, raking the bats down like a buzzer on a head full of hair. He kept the sights up to their center masses to avoid hitting any of the downed troops. The last two turned and looked into the headlights in fear before trying to dash away. Dennis chopped down one but the other flew in between some apartments before disappearing in the alleyways.

Five seconds after the gun had ceased firing, Val moved her hand from her face to see what was left. Winnie uncovered her ears as she sat up to view the leftover carnage, the HMG fire did a number on her hearing. They could see some of the troops stand up and look over to the carrier in confusion, some began to climb out from the dead bats.

Val pulled the vehicle closer and stopped right in front of the recovering soldiers. A gill man put his webbed hand up to stop the vehicle. Before the carrier even stopped, Winnie scrambled out of her door and didn't even bother to close it.

The doppelgänger looked on in caution as Winnie sprinted over to one of the soldiers who appeared to be a werewolf. "Dennis, you see your girlfriend?" Dennis resisted a gulp as he saw who it was through the monitor, he knew there'd be hell to pay.

"Yeah, everyone file out!" Dennis ordered. Val climbed out of the driver's seat while Jake and Dennis filed out of the crew door. The cold rain pummeled them as they made their way to the squad they just saved.

"Dennis!" The gill man gave something of a salute. "Thanks bro."

Dennis nodded back, he watched with unease as the figure with Winnie shot a glare at him. He prepared to verbally defend himself as the high ranking figure started marching over to him, keeping his stern look. The lycan stopped in front of the Guardians.

"WHO THE HELL WAS ON THAT GUN!" His shout echoed even through the rain and distant chaos.

Valerie sidestepped as she noticed he was clearly focused on the other two. Jake stood by ready to defend his leader. He had the size on him, but knowing the rank and war stories of his comrade's older brother, it was best to not get involved yet. Dennis looked him in the eyes, "relax, Wilbur."

"Fuckin' relax!?" Wilbur snorted. "You could've killed me and my men!"

"But I didn't, I saved your asses didn't I?"

Wilbur got in the hybrid's face, "Just because your status outranks me doesn't mean I won't kick your ass and file a report."

Dennis' sharp gaze didn't waver in the slightest. Out of the corner of his right eye he could see the other fighters were up and watching them with concerned stares, Winnie started to slowly walk to them. Dennis returned his focus on Wilbur who still looked pretty pissed. "As I recall… you're only second in command."

That was it. Wilbur clutched the Dennis' arm with his claws but the dhampir still didn't budge. Dennis could still see bitter anger in his feral yellows but he saw something else in his eyes, pain maybe?

Jake moved in closer. "Easy pal."

Wilbur didn't acknowledge him. His ear twitched at the sound of a distant explosion and let his claws off Dennis, there were more pressing issues now than his five year old resentment for his sister's zing. He gave the hybrid the last glare before turning around and walking off towards the survivors.

"Everything good?" Wilbur's voice rose above the rain, gaining the attention of his subordinates. Their were some 'yes sirs' and nods, a few had healing scratches.

"Good cause' we're heading out." Wilbur turned and nodded towards the abandoned factory, already marching off.

Groans and grunts could be heard amongst the troops but they complied regardless as they picked themselves up and followed the lycan. Winnie however, yelled after him.

"Hey!? Where are you going!?"

"Out of the rain," Wilbur simply stated. "Plus I have downed guys and wounded civies' that need to be tended to."

Dennis watched them for a moment before motioning to the rest of the Guardians to follow. He moved beside Wilbur and the rest of his squad blended with the soldiers as they eased their way to the arms factory.

"Where's the commander at?" Dennis asked.

Wilbur glanced over at him, "you're looking at him."

Dennis took a second to process that. With Wilbur being the second in command First Lieutenant, the could only mean…

"Commander Braxton was killed in the first wave about two hours ago," Wilbur spoke up and pointed behind his shoulder. "His body's a half click north of here."

Dennis didn't know what to think of that. He knew that Commander Braxton was one of the few monsters Wilbur respected and looked up to, and Wilbur was put in charge of the whole Translyvania regiment just like that. He just hoped the werewolf was ready for something like that.

"Do you have a read on the situation?"

Wilbur snorted at Dennis' question, "I thought you would."

"All I know is the power went out for a few seconds just after the hearing and the brood started hitting us left to right, we assume some are infiltrators from the American legions or the LPN."

Wilbur gave the hybrid a sideways look, "That's funny because we have confirmation on a prison break from the dungeon earlier tonight."

"The castle was swarmed by Allegiance troops, all Dark Brood. Could smell the dark energy before you even saw them." Dennis didn't get a reply from him that time. Instead, all he heard was a disgruntled exhale that told him the lycan didn't need this right now.

The combined squads moved into the shadows of the old arms factory and out of the storm. Their eyes quickly adjusted to a set of burning kerosene lamps that were propped up on a tool cart in the back of the building, those were the only lights present. They then saw lines of beds next to the cart filled with monsters and others were down in fetal positions along the walls, it was obvious they were terrified civilians.

Dennis and the rest of his squad fell back. He looked over his shoulder to see if they were okay and still following, he paused at the sight of Winnie. She had both her paws covering her nose and her blue eyes seemed to scream in some kind of agony. Dennis shrugged it off for now but would glance back a few times.

Several of the civilians looked up from their positions and their expressions brightened. Dennis returned a gentle nod at their stares and a couple of the wounded troops looked up from their beds. They smiled and managed weak salutes to the Guardians, but they looked rather pitiful. It was hard for Dennis to look past their winced smiles and the pain in their eyes, as if the very presence of the Guardians of Transylvania were enough to heal all wounds. Dennis at least hoped they boosted their morale enough to get the regiment through whatever was happening in this city.

Dennis and the rest of the Guardians stopped and covered their noses, Val gagged as she attempted to breath out of her mouth. It hit them like a wave, the stench.

The best way they could mentally describe it was if a witch took burnt hair, rotting flesh, and lysol and mix it in her low boil crockpot. Dennis covered his nose with his cloak though he wasn't sure if that was going to be enough. He didn't want to look at her now but he knew one thing, It sucks to be Winnie.

"Damn! Don't think my nostrils will ever recover from that shit." Jake commented with his fist mashed against his nose.

An amused 'hmph' could be heard from Wilbur as he went over to the cart and ordered the troops to disperse. If Dennis had to guess what he was thinking, it would be something along the lines of 'you all are pansies who've never spent so much as an hour on the frontlines.'

Winnie watched her older brother as he picked up the lamp and moved over to the cot next to the cart. Her eyes widened and her paws fell from her muzzle at the sight of the bed, a bandaged werewolf with a burnt guard uniform came into view in the lamplight. Dennis didn't stop her when she ran over to him and clutched him tight.

The werewolf grunted in annoyance and slight agony. "Hey!? What the h…" His left eye which wasn't covered in a bandage rap widened as if a human stood over him. "Winnie…"

Wally gentle hugged back, keeping a distant stare behind her. "I thought you… I thought…"

Winnie sat him back on his cot, not too hard but with passionate force. Her eyes now teary as they pierced into his left eye with duel power. "Why weren't you there!?"

"I… I." Wally couldn't get the words out, still in shock as if seeing a ghost in front of him.

"Huh?!" Winnie jabbed his left arm which wasn't bandaged. "Why huh? Why didn't you come for me like you said you would!?"

"I tried, Winnie." He finally answered. He held his head low in shame and self loathing. He then showed off his wrapped up arm and moved it around, Winnie could tell he was hurting. "The dungeon was swarmed and by the time I got out the embassy was in flames. I tried to climb up, but the flames…"

Winnie visibly cringed at the scent radiating off the wraps, charred flesh that was failing to heal. She instantly regretted how she just treated him and already forgave him. She looked him over to see if there was anything she could do to help.

Wilbur motioned for the rest of the Guardians to follow him off in the shadows as Winnie assisted Wally. He led them to a dust covered conveyor before stopping.

"Look Dennis," Wilbur began as he sat on the conveyor belt. "I not gonna lie when I say I need help here, the situation doesn't look like it's gonna get better and I'm pretty sure I'll have to get these people in the tunnels soon."

Dennis studied his expression, he can tell it pained Wilbur to ask him for help but he genuinely needed it. "Actually, we have orders to leave the city."

Wilbur lowered his gaze.

"It's true, a Transylvanian official messaged me back at the hotel."

Wilbur shot a look at Val then back at the dhampir. He sighed. "Look man, all my men are either numb nuts or brutes that can't use magic. All I need is a healer."

Dennis thought about it. "Eh, I'd rather not keep whomever gave us that order waiting."

Wilbur's troubled look turned into a tense glare, giving Dennis the impression that he owed him for that turret incident earlier.

"Fine," Dennis gave in. "My healing spell probably won't be able to do anything more than just cover the wounds and numb the pain, bliss burns are a little hard to deal with."

"Fair enough," Wilbur agreed. That would definitely make it easier to move the wounded.

Dennis moved off to to the rows of beds, starting with the one Wally laid on. Wilbur watched as he placed a hand on Winnie's shoulder and began to use the other one to patch Wally. He turned to Jake who was observing the machinery on the other side of the conveyor. "Hey Jake?"

The golem snapped out of it and turned to the werewolf. "Yo?"

"Your folks alright?"

Jake stares at the lycan blankly, a strange question coming from someone who hates his boss. "They're… okay, or I hope so. They're still at the castle."

Wilbur fiddled with a burnt patch of fur on his face, keeping his feral yellows on the golem. "I hope they're okay too, had a lot of good memories of Frank."

"Oh, uh thanks… and sorry for my hand out there."

The werewolf commander waved Jake off. "No problem, you were defending your leader." Wilbur dug around in his front UMA coat pocket for a cig and lighter. "Would have done the same thing for Braxton."

Jake nodded as Wilbur found both in his pocket and plucked the cig between his lips, lighting it. He looked over to Valerie to see her twiddling around on her CaDRU. She looked up, smirking.

"Something on my face?" Wilbur remarked, blowing a puff of smoke out.

"Just your ingrown cheek fur," Val snickered.

Though his fur hid it, Wilbur's face went pale. Feeling awkward, Jake began to wander off towards the field hospital, knowing their history.

"That was supposed to be our secret."

Val couldn't resist a giggle at his coarse voice. She sat next to him on the conveyor belt, watching Dennis. She placed her arm around him, causing the werewolf to flinch.

"Sorry… if you're still hurt about."

"N–no, it's fine. You had to move on." Val stuttered, not expecting that.

"Hmm, right." Wilbur slumped down some. Val could see him out of the corner of her eye and knew he was thinking hard. "I still wonder if we could've been a thing a few years back."

Val immediately waved him off, "all that time and we didn't even get something close to a zing."

Wilbur didn't respond and just continued to stare straight ahead. He couldn't say if he believed in a zing or not but he would be lying if he said he didn't feel something for her. That very first day he met her on one of the American battlefields he thought he had something.

Valerie thought the same thing but she wouldn't tell him. She couldn't understand why though, he was a ruthless killer when they first met and she was just a vulnerable welp, lost and far from home. Maybe the sight of her changed him somehow, she'd like to think so. Val realized from these thoughts that she lied earlier, a part of her heart was still in pain since those three years. All that time they had together, those secrets they shared, the loyalty, they just couldn't click.

She focused back on Dennis who had finished up with the downed soldiers and was now talking to the huddled up civilians, perhaps encouraging them. Another question popped in her mind. "Why do you hate on Dennis so much? I know there's history to you two that predates mine."

"It's more complicated than that," Wilbur sighed. "I don't dislike him that much but since my sister will practically die for him, someone has to be hard on him since my dad apparently won't."

Val looked at him quizzically, "I don't follow."

"Look," Wilbur started, turning over to face her. "In our old culture and I mean really old lycan tradition, females have always gotten the short end of the stick. They were seen as mating tools so our species doesn't go extinct and nothing more."

Val listened, her interest peaking.

"It's why even today some of our women our submissive in nature and chase males to no end. That's why in modern times we have to keep their potential mates in check so they don't have any ideas about taking advantage of that instinct," Wilbur finished.

"Oh, but you know Dennis isn't like that, I mean he pure tried to hide from her every second he got when he was little."

"True, but Dennis came off as kind of punk whenever we interacted so…"

Val cocked her eyebrow at him, "so you do dislike him?"

Wilbur fell into a snickering fit, "yeah, yeah, I guess I do to an extent."

Valerie didn't blame him, he had to protect his sister. It was at that point she wished she had siblings of her own, not exactly 300 though, just a little brother that she could be looked up to, protect, and maybe pick on a little. She jumped when her CaDRU vibrated and pulled up her sleeve, and muttered. "Shit…"

"What?" Wilbur looked over at her fear choked gaze on the device, he threw his cig down.

"We have to leave now…!" Val stormed off the conveyor and towards the group.

"Hey!?" Wilbur took off after her.

She spun around, stopping him in his tracks. "The magic fields are closing around the city!"

The lycan commander stood there trying to process what Val had just said. He watched her as she took off to the others. _The dome is activating, that could only mean… shit!_ He stormed off as well. _The castle is in enemy hands._

Wilbur stopped at the cart and picked up his lamp. "Hey! Everyone to the Service Tunnels, now!"

The Guardians stared at him cluelessly but the troops had already started grabbing as much as they can and helped up the wounded.

Dennis looked all around him as the civilians stood and started making their way to a side room off to the rear. He felt a hard tap on his shoulder.

"Dennis, we have to go!"

He turned to Val, confused. "Why?"

"An order from this Stone Cold guy, the field is coming on and we have to get out!"

Dennis took in the sudden chaos once again but a sight brought him to the ceiling. Through the cracks in the metal roof he could see a bluish wave of light falling in a downward stream. "Yeah, let's go. Winnie! Jake! Let's go!"

Dennis and Val moved out in the center of the factory and watched for their comrades. Jake was the first to come running over but Winnie was being slowed down. They looked behind her to see Wally in tow.

"Whoa! Where the hell are you going!?" Wilbur stopped his siblings.

"Dammit Wil! Move!" Wally yelled.

"To hell with that! Get your ass in there!" Wilbur commanded as he pointed to the side room the others were filing into.

"Look man, I owe it to her."

"Please Wilbur," Winnie pleaded. "He'll be okay with us."

Wilbur growled in frustration as Dennis ran over. "What the hell is the holdup!?" Winnie leave him, that's an order!"

"No!" Winnie yelled. "I'm staying here than!"

Dennis froze at her defiance, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Her brother wasn't even there for her and she'd stay here with him? His attention shot back up to the ceiling to the burning lights.

"Fine! Come on!" Dennis yelled over his shoulder as turned for the exit. "Let's go!"

Wilbur watched in shock as at what just happened. He brushed it off and ran after them, he at least was going to see them out.

Out on the street, the blue Aurora of the magical energy now covered 75% of the sky above the city of New Transylvania. It came in a downward wave, eager to cover the city in it's protective dome. The Guardians ignored it as they filed into the ANAC, there was no time for distractions. The rain had stopped completely due to the energy which was one thing they were thankful for.

The group resumed their spots in the carrier as Wally pulled himself in the back. Dennis didn't have to tell Val to go as she floored it once she saw everyone was in.

Wilbur watched in anticipation from the factory door as the speed off. The blue field was coming down quick.

_One._

The ANAC was closing the rest of the way down Main Street.

_Two_

The edge of the field turned to a more bright, Aqua color as the it closed down on the outer wall.

_Three_

The carrier was right there. At the main gate.

"Yes!"

Wilbur put his furred fist up as he saw the carrier shoot right out of the gate before it closed and the energy barrier made contact with the stone wall.

"Did they make it?" A voice buzzed in oh Wilbur's communicator.

"Affirmative!" Wilbur turned and sped back into the factory. Maybe now, they would actually have a chance.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**Castle Transylvania, one hour ago**

Drac glided down the halls as fast as his old wings would allow. He was close to the auditorium, he could've sworn he heard yelling and screaming.

"Augh!"

A force hit him from his right side and he fell to the marble floor. Once the wind came back to him, he looked up to see a pale bat with blue eyes looking down at him in concern.

"Didn't mean to pinball you," it spoke. "But you have to come with me."

Drac gave him a hard look. "Why? There's intruders in the auditorium."

The bat shook it's head in urgency. "There's intruders everywhere and if you don't help me right now, they'll overrun this castle!"

Drac straitened himself and flew back up. "Okay Greem, if this is important."

"Trust me," Greem circled around Drac and flew back down the hall. "The Allegiance is at stake here!"

Drac flew after him and stayed elevated to his right, just like the formation of two aircraft. Greem eventually slowed to a hover by a small side door. It opened automatically to reveal a rectangular shaft that went upwards.

One might think this to be a ventilation shaft but to the Dracula's, these were the bat–ways. They are a series of wide but short tunnels that went through the walls and ceilings of the castle and connect to outer doors. Designed for a vampire bat in mind, the doors have a DNA scanner on a small tab that only opens the door for any DNA that matches Count Dracula. Greem being the only exception.

Dracula followed the white bat in and they were soaring through the claustrophobic tunnels. Their wings had plenty of inches from the walls and there were no pipes or conduit, everything was neat albeit dark.

"Where are we going, Greem?"

"To my office," the pale bat responded. "All of the outward communication and automated systems jumped to there once the Dark Brood attacked. With your help, we'll have the situation under control in no time."

Drac's bat ears twitched. "Did I hear you correctly when you said Dark Brood?"

"Yes," Greem confirmed. "Me and Wasilei had a hunch they would try something soon, looks like it's tonight."

A new wave of fear flowed through the count. While he was relieved that Dennis not getting selected didn't cause enough stir to set off the alarms, the Dark Brood spelled whole new trouble. He thought about his grandson and how he was probably handling this. Drac was sure he'd be fine as he handled the Brood before, but him and his squad is on his own, no help from himself or Vlad this time. He only could hope.

After a few more minutes of flying, they eventually reached another side door. It read them and opened up into a hallway, Drac assumed they were somewhere on the top floor.

Greem was the first to fly out and Drac followed, they both switched into their humanoid forms as they sprinted for the far door. Greem pushed open the door as they reached it but Drac stopped right there at the doorway, dead still. Something was wrong.

He watched as Greem scurried around in his circular home–office, booting on computers. His instincts had been on the fritz since Greem first ran into him but now they were burning on a whole new level. The thing is though, he literally couldn't move. It was not like his fear wouldn't allow him to.

Greem looked cautiously behind him over to Drac. "What are you doing? Come on!"

That seemed to snap Drac out of whatever he was in and proceeded to take another step. Once again, his foot froze in midair. It was like an invisible wall with no solid surface keeping him back. "Greem, what is this!?"

The blond vampire walked forward, looking over Drac in confusion. "You can't move?"

"No!" Drac yelled in frustration.

That was it, Greem couldn't hold it anymore. He held his head low, and started to laugh.

Drac's face involuntarily morphed into a death glare at the turned vampire. _He's laughing, why the hell was he laughing._ "What the hell are you laughing at!? There could be people out there dying!"

Greem pulled himself together and started to walk forward again. "You still haven't figured it out yet."

"What!?"

Greem didn't answer. He walked right to Drac and lowered himself when he was in the doorway, grabbing the square rug Drac was standing on. With one sharp pull, he yanked the rug out and Drac fell to his feet.

"AUUGH!" Drac winced from the pain from his upper arm he fell on. He then looked up at Greem, "what is the meaning of this!?"

Once again, the ex–agent didn't respond. He just stood leaning against the door with an amused smirk, arms crossed.

Drac tried to get up, and when he did he froze. He spotted the carving in the floor and studied it, it was a circle that went all the way around him. His worst fear at the moment was confirmed when he saw the markings and Akkadian writings in the inner circle. This was a ward, a vampiric one. Every monster, spirit, and demon had one to either trap or block them from entering something. Drac just had one question.

"Wh… why?" Drac stuttered, looking at Greem in disbelief.

"Why?" Greem chortled. "You'll see soon enough." He turned and walked back into the room.

Drac was speechless, he watched as Greem disappeared into a back room. Greem had betrayed him, he knew that much now. But why? What cards does he have with the Dark Brood? Drac cursed himself as that wasn't important, he should have seen this coming. He always trusted Greem a little too much as Vlad told him but he just wrote him off as paranoid in his old age, now he was right. Greem was too nice, he helped build up monster society, he integrated his own technology, he even helped them win the war. It was all a play for some unknown purpose.

Greem emerged from the room pushing some kind of large hand truck. Now standing, Drac watched him push it in between two monitors on the side of his room. He noticed a series of straps along the truck's sides and there were no bars, just a flat metallic frame. Drac saw there was some type of tool or weapon on his back.

Greem turned and started walking back towards Drac, drawing his weapon from his back. The count glared and tensed up as Greem stopped before him, training his weapon on the count. It had a weird design and a cylinder power supply next to the barrel, it's muzzle didn't open up. Drac had never seen a weapon like that before.

He flipped a button and pulled the trigger.

Drac heard the trigger, but didn't hear anything for a few seconds. Waves started hitting him, like sticking his head in the beach shallows. "That all you got, tr…"

Greem adjusted a knob on the power supply.

His eyes burned and his head started to scream, he fell own his knees as his legs couldn't handle the sudden heaviness. Drac clutched his head. "GREEM!… DAMN You…" his voice broke as his eyelids were too heavy to keep them open. He fell to the floor, the waves stopped and the door opened to blackness.

Greem looked over his handiwork. The count now laid unconscious in the center of the ward.

"Infrasound waves, you can do all sorts of things with them if you have the right signals and the waves amplified just right. Anxiety, hallucinations, migraines, and fatigue, this thing can do it all." Greem threw his wave gun on his shoulder and pretended to blow smoke from the tuner. "In your case, it was the later."

He looked over at some movement coming from down the hall, and waved them to come over. They appeared as two Allegiance vampires as they approached.

"Get him in those straps by twelve." He ordered them in the room. The two nodded as they looked down at the count, sadistic grins spreading across their lips.

"I have other business to attend to," Greem said before he moved down the hall. He was eager to get away from the smell of used Dark Magic.

As he moved down the main hall, he'd noticed the atmosphere had completely changed. Lights were dimmed out, the smell of smoke and cooked meat, and there wasn't a single legit Allegiance guard in sight. _Victory._

There was a bliss fire going on farther down the hall and he moved at a more brisk pace to see the destruction. The bright flames now were now climbing up the walls and hitting the ceiling. He looked across the floors to see the remains of suits of armor, Dracula's protectors. They had all melted into the floor, a few were still molten and bubbling. No doubt they came face to face with a Blight Torcher, and lost.

"Heh, looks like they should've made you guys out of a more heat–resistant metal." Greem remarked and laughed.

He continued down the hall and followed the route back to the auditorium. Patrols of uniformed Dark Brood now lurked around the halls and Greem now had a sense of glee, his plan managed to go off without a hitch. He slowed his walk down to dwell on his accomplishment and take in the air of death and destruction, he had missed it from the war. To him, this air always came before a great change, a change for the better. Just like the end of the Thirteen Year War, and just like this takeover.

Greem shoved open the huge double doors and before him lay a sea of panic and death. The Dark Brood had the entire place under their control and were skulking about, looking for more lives to take. The floor along the walls were littered with melted suits of armor and chard Allegiance bodies, all synced with each other. The crowd of civilians and officials that were once seated along the rows of chairs were now herded against the opposite wall. Armored trolls which were considered a type of elite in the Dark Brood had flame weapons known as Blight Torchers trained on the crowds. They wore toothy grins at the sight of the frightened crowd.

Greem looked around at the controlled mayhem, the toppled seats, the busted lights. _This is just the first step._

He scanned around for Hunter and saw the wendigo standing tall by the main entrance, gazing over the trapped herd of monsters. Without anymore delays, he made his way over to the NAL President.

"Greem!" Hunter boasted once he saw the vampire. "Looks like this little coup of your's went off without a hitch."

"Wouldn't say that just yet!" Greem called back.

Hunter placed his talons on the vampire's shoulders once he made it to the entrance. "Did you get him?"

"Yes, the guards are strapping him up as we speak, it won't be much longer until we have his secrets. No thanks to this thing right here." Greem showed off the wave gun.

Hunter looked over the weapon, intrigued. "Your designs never fail to impress me, Greem."

Greem re–strapped the wave gun on his back. "But yeah, this isn't a hundred percent till we have those kids who think they're heroes in here."

"We have Vlad on it right now," Hunter nodded. "Though Murray and Ruby managed to squeeze out of here somehow."

"Dammit!" Greem cursed as he balled his fist. "Okay… It's not like they'd be able to get far, are the other two still here?"

"Yeah, Shu and Grongo are in the crowd somewhere." Hunter pointed over to the cornered monsters, "Drac's buddies are in there too."

Greem looked over to the crowd. The masses of the scared monsters were moved closer to the entrance and the vampire could make out the faces of Frank and more of the Drac pack. He grinned. _If the Guardians do manage to escape, I'll at least have cards to pull._

A commotion brought Hunter's eyes to the crowd, he pulled his satchel to his side.

It was Grongo. He looked as if his fuse had already blown, eyes glowering, teeth bared. He pushed through the monsters, not giving a damn who he pushed over. "Move!"

He made it out of the crowd and didn't even bat the trolls an eye, he kept his glare on the wendigo. Hunter motioned for the trolls to lower their torchers as the mapinguari stormed past them.

"Grongo! We were just talking about you!" Hunter smiled.

"Shut it!" Grongo snapped as he stopped before the two. "What the fuck ails you!?"

Hunter broke down in laughter, this explosive temperament isn't like Grongo at all.

Grongo got in his face, they were eye to eye. "What is this Hunter?"

Grongo backed off, feeling a cold object against the upper part of his stomach. the old monster looked down to see the barrel of a revolver pointed at his liver. He looked back up at Hunter whose face was now unreadable.

The mapinguari stared at his old friend, his expression one of loss and betrayal. "Why… why do you help them? I took you under my wing, I trained you, helped you become the NA president… and you whore out to the Brood!"

"And I am very grateful of your previous aid," Hunter spoke as he pulled the hammer back. "But your time is over, you old fools can't bring us to Ascension."

He pulled the trigger.

The shot caused all of the grouped monsters to duck to the floor. It rang the eardrums of every monster in the large room. Grongo hit the floor with a hard thud, the silver .44 is enough to knock down even the biggest creatures.

"You…" Grongo choked, his eyes pitiful as he lay on the floor on his dying breath. "Burn…"

That was it. His eyes went lifeless to the ceiling as he choked out his last breath.

"That was depressing," Hunter half joked.

Greem watched the whole ordeal with mild interest. Though it was entertaining, Grongo had to be taken care of. "Had to be done."

A troll walked over, already expecting what it'll have to do.

"Clean this up," Hunter ordered, and pointed to the exit. "Take his body to the burn piles."

The troll nodded and slung Grongo's corpse over his shoulder, and marched off out of the heavy doors.

"_Greem!" _A voice roared through the vampire's communicator, causing him to wince.

"What is it Bela?"

"TH!…DAMN TWERPS!…RE TRY!… ESCAPE!" The large bat's voice chopped through the static.

Greem cut his com off. He turned to Hunter, stress beginning to show on his face. "Looks like I'll have to bring the field up sooner than anticipated."

"We have some escapees?"

"Yeah," Greem switched to his bat form. "We have to keep the outer Allegiance forces from intervening as long as we can."

He flapped over to Hunter. "You think you can keep these people at bay?"

The wendigo gave an eager nod. "Sure thing, chief. Sounds like fun."

Greem nodded back, and the pale bat darted off back to his office. Hunter watched him disappear into one of the bat doors, his gaze slowly turned back to the cornered crowd.

He began walking, revolver in clawed hand. Most of the front monsters started to shrink back into the crowd out of fear, some were still on the ground from the shot earlier. Hunter stopped before the masses, he stood in between two trolls with burning torchers. In a sudden motion, he had the muzzle on the monsters.

They all jumped back, a few screams were heard. He giggled in amusement at their reaction and started spinning the revolver on his trigger talon. He through it around and continued spinning the gun by the trigger guard, like he was some cowboy.

Wayne peered behind Frank's shoulder. "Damn this guy is a nutcase," he remarked with slight fear.

"Your telling me," Frank whispered. "I just wonder how this guy got elected."

Wayne chuckled a bit, it was a slight relief in their situation. He felt claws dig into his leg and glanced down to see Sunny wrapped around his right leg, her head buried.

"Sunny," he reached down and nudged her ear. She slowly looked up at him, trembling. He wanted to say she'd be okay, as much as a lie that would probably be. "…" He couldn't pull himself to say anything.

Wanda moved over and picked Sunny off of him, noticing her stare was making him uncomfortable. She put her back on the floor and kneeled down to her level. Caring yellow eyes stared down into delicate blues. "Sunny, if anything happens… you remember where to run to, right?"

The pre–teen werewolf locked up. She didn't want even think of that.

"Sunny?" Wanda remained passionate.

"Yes mom."

She dove into her mother and allowed her to pull her in a tight hug. She didn't want to run or hide, she just wanted to stay here in a fierce mother's embrace, it seemed like it would protect her from anything.


	7. Into the Wastes

**Disclaimer: I don't own anyone here, Sony Pictures Animation does. OCs are mine.**

**Chapter seven**

_Bump!_

The back of the carrier shifted up.

"Whoever has the wheel up there, chill the fuck out!" Wally yelled from the seat of the back compartment. He was laid down and strapped up by Winnie, he grimaced as his bandaged arm crushed against the side wall.

"He'll be fine," Winnie waved him off.

Valerie heard her but didn't respond, she kept her attention on the shadowy road she was struggling to keep the ANAC on. Even with the low–beam lights on, the dust outside was still blinding as the particles reflected the beams of light.

The area outside the interior of the ANAC could best be described as a brown hell as the thunderstorm that lurked over the Transylvania now turned into a dust storm. Rain, dead topsoil, and radioactive particles pounded the exterior and mud was starting to build up on the windshield. The clock on the dashboard read 0:55, the visibility outside was close to zero.

"Dennis," Val started, trying to make out the main road. "Where are we heading?"

"Bistrita, the abandoned city west of here. Just stay on the main road until you see the tower." His voice rang out from the gun compartment. "We'll settle and lay low there until we can figure out what's happening."

_If I can even see the tower. _Val struggle to keep the vehicle on the road between the gusts of wind and mud, it was too late when she saw an object go under the hood.

_Bump!_

"God dammit!"

"Sorry! If these dead trees weren't on the road!" Val finally snapped at Wally.

"If you'd stop, I could clear the lane up." Jake suggested, flexing his muscles.

Winnie shook her head. "Too risky Jake, the rad meter's going off it's rocker." She referred to the radiation warning light blinking yellow, her ears twitching at the loud ticks.

"Plus I don't know if we're being followed or not," Dennis added.

Jake looked over his shoulder at the rear door to check for any headlights. He turned back when he didn't see anything, popping a sad glance at Wally. "Don't know anyone who'd follow us through this mess."

A flash of lightning nearly blinded the front seat passengers, the thunder rumbled through the interior. The ANAC swerved as Val regained control. "Dennis… you think we should stop and wait this storm out?"

"No, we stop, we're dead." Dennis panned around on the turret, the monitor in infrared blared out from the dust particles. "From the look of that message, that person hinted we were being hunted."

**_BAAM!_**

The ground on the side of the carrier erupted in a ear splitting explosion, the shockwave stunned everyone inside. The carrier fell back on it's wheels after being tilted. Winnie had her ears covered and crumbled next to her door while Valerie panicked to get the vehicle under control.

"Whaat waas thaaat!" A distorted Wally yelled, in pain and deafened by the blast.

Jake pulled himself up from the floor while Dennis put his hand up to his ear. He broke from the shock and scanned around on the turret for the unseen threat, he couldn't see anything but the dust clouds. A sparkle of sorts brought Dennis upward on the monitor and froze in horror at what he saw, a missile shooting right for the carrier. He knew it was too late by the speed of the projectile and could only turn his head and yell, "brace for impact!"

**_BAAM!_**

It hit right on the road behind the vehicle while the others were still recovering from the last blast. The rear of the carrier jumped up from the force then violently fell back down. "Shit!" Val freaked as the road took up the windshield, she struggled to keep the wheels straight.

It took a few seconds but Dennis managed to identify the aerial aggressor after a few seconds of scanning. His eyes followed a steady green light fading and reappearing between the storm clouds, He could faintly make out the black delta–winged aircraft cruising above. "Wraith Drone! Straight on top of us!"

Val immediately swerved and took the vehicle off-road, trying to keep west as much as she can. She drove in a zigzag motion in order to decrease their chances of being hit.

Wally struggled against the straps while Dennis tracked for the unmanned craft. He spotted the green nav light speeding up on top of them, the whole shape of the aircraft then dived from the clouds. Dennis assumed it was trying to get a better shot at them through the wind, which was why neither of the previous missiles managed to hit the mark.

Now locked onto the aircraft, Dennis was about to open fire when Wally came stumbling towards the cubby. He'd chewed off his restraints and fought through the pain. "Dennis stop!" He stumbled on the floor. "Those rounds won't penetrate, don't waste the bullets!"

"You serious!" Dennis yelled.

"Then what the hell do you expect us to do!? Get blown into the sand!?" Jake hollered as he made an attempt to keep a steady footing.

"The gun locker." Wally leaned against the interior and pointed to the small arms compartment on the opposite side from Dennis. "There's a grenade launcher in there, had High Explosives that'll take that thing out."

Jake turned to open it and stopped at the sight of the scanner lock. He hesitated before waving his brawny hand across the miniature black screen, a green laser flashed by his palm and immediately turned red. The screen lit up with text.

**"Signature Invalid, Locking"**

A click sound was heard on the side lock.

"Dammit!" Jake slammed his big fist on the locker door.

"Move Sherman," Wally grunted as he lightly shoved Jake, the latter moved over. "Reset."

The red text on the screen faded. Wally waved his paw and the laser flashed by, it went red again. The werewolf growled in annoyance, "really?" He remembered his military clearance signature expired a week ago.

"Well what now!?" Jake asked rhetorically.

Wally tried to dig his claws around the locker's edge, only to get pinched when it sealed itself. "Come pull on this."

Jake moved over and grabbed the top corner of the locker door and began to pull with his immense strength. He managed to pull the door back enough for a decent sized crevice. Wally fit his claws in and started to pry.

Dennis watched as the two worked on the armory, he then turned to face the monitor which now showed the drone closing it's elevation. He knew it wouldn't be long before it fired again and with the way the two were struggling, they wouldn't be able to get that launcher in time. He left the turret and made for the front seats, he had an idea but it was a crazy one.

Dennis noticed Winnie was huddled up on the edge of her seat against the door, ears covered, as if she was about to cower and jump out at any given moment. Knowing her, he wouldn't honestly blame her. She almost jumped out of her seat when he tapped her on the shoulder.

Winnie peered out of her elbow, eyes wide with crippling fear.

"Are there any flares on your side?" Dennis asked as patiently as he could.

"I… uh," she leaned over and dug around in the side of her door. "No… wait," she fished her paws under her seat and grabbed what felt like a stack of candles.

"Yes!" She pulled up a bundle of magnesium torches and presented them to her zing.

"Thanks Winnie," Dennis gave her an appreciative smile. He went to take the signal flares when Winnie jerked them back from his reach. Just one look in her eye told him she already had an idea of what he was about to do.

"Winnie, I need those."

She just stared at him, her face mixed with concern and anger. "What are you gonna do with these?"

Dennis exhaled and his head fell, her concern was appreciated but he didn't need it now. "Look, I need those so we don't die, kay?"

That last word seem to set something off in her, she bared her teeth and moved the flares behind her. _Does he seriously think his life's a joke?_

"Win, just give them to him." Val weakly told Winnie, trying to control the wheel.

"NO!" Winnie snapped at her request. She turned back to Dennis. "You may be the leader but under no circumstances are you going to throw your life away!"

"Give them, now!" Dennis demanded.

She bared her teeth again and started to growl. She lurched back when Dennis made a grab for the flares. Her show didn't intimidate him in the slightest as they had a few disagreements in their relationship in the past, it was just a show.

"Dennis stop!" She pulled against his grip on the flares. "Sto–!"

**_BAAM!_**

A terrified yelp escaped the werewolf as she fell back in her seat and dropped the flares as another missile barely missed. The torches separated and scattered all over the floor amidst the chaos. Dennis took advantage of it and grabbed two flares before taking off to the back of the carrier.

Winnie pushed her fear aside and scrambled up after him, "Dennis! No!"

Val's right hand immediately caught the werewolf's arm while swerving the wheel with the other. Winnie struggled against her grip. Val knew she probably wouldn't like her that much after this but this was for the best, even though she equally feared for her leader.

"Dennis…" Winnie froze as she saw him open one of the rear doors. He swapped into his bat form carrying the two flares with his feet, then zoom off into the muddy abyss. "NO!" She ran after him but it was too late.

Dennis felt like his small bat frame was being torn apart by the colliding currents of wind. The stinging of sand particles as they pelted him didn't help much either as he tried to get his bearings in the storm. He eventually found a technique to stop flapping and glide between the currents.

He spotted the drone at a now lower altitude, it maintained it's position above the swerving vehicle. Dennis glided upwards around the currents to the craft. His eyes saw a spark from under the bottom frame and saw a missile drop before shooting downward.

He froze, the strong wind nor sharp pain couldn't tear his gaze away. The projectile was coming down and this one was going to hit, he just knew it.

Dennis reached one of his wings down to one of the flares, surprised they were still there. He yanked the caps off and focused up one of his vampiric powers as he stared at the end of the closest torch. _Incinerate._

The end came alive with an orange flame, then burst into a blinding red blaze as the magnesium started to burn. With that, Dennis looked for the missile, which was shrieking down past him. Just before the missile could go by him, he reared back his leg and chucked the burning flare out.

The missile swerved, now chasing the torch like Dennis wanted. It followed the light until the wind distorted it and lost it's lock, sending it towards the ground. It detonated far off in the distance.

Dennis did a flip in victory but didn't have time to celebrate. He looked up to see the drone turning to the side, it's left wing dipping. He noticed a hole right on the wing close to nose of the UCAV, where it's machine gun would stick out. It's MG hadn't retracted yet, leaving a hole Dennis hoped the flare would fit in. He glanced down and decided to go ahead and light the other flare.

A shriek brought his attention back up and saw another missile was deployed, this time coming straight at him. He paled and gave a death stare at the incoming missile, just one mistake and that's it. Time seemed to slow for him as he faced the speeding projectile getting closer, and closer.

He dove and swooped up right at the last second, avoiding death. He shot up to the drone, adrenaline pumping. He looked back to see it was following him and it was, albeit closely. He had no room for error.

Dennis kept complete focus on the muzzle hole, his grip tight on the flare. He noticed the aircraft started to turn and shot with a burst of speed.

_Cluck!_

"Score!"

It was dead eye shot.

**_BAAM!_**

The hybrid was pushed back from the explosion. As he fell back down to the earth, he scanned the clouds for the drone. By the sound of Wally, this thing had tough armor. _But it couldn't be that tough could it?_

He spotted the sharp movement of the craft nose diving off to the side. It was trailing smoke as it barreled to the ground and just like the fourth missile, hit with a fiery explosion in the distant plain.

_Yes! _Dennis wanted to do a few victory flips but the pain was almost unbearable. Now he had one problem left, to find the ANAC through the storm.

He eventually made out the headlights and glided with the current to the rear doors. Dennis went from the stinging of being pelted, to feeling like hot needles were sticking him everywhere on his body. He felt the nausea starting to creep in and knew he had to get out of this mess. The rear door he had opened earlier was still swinging outward and he dove for it.

Dennis switched as soon as he darted in and shut the door. He leaned on it, catching his breath and letting the nausea fade. The hybrid continued to wait there and the silence was getting to him. He turned around once he felt better, right into the piercing glare of a certain werewolf.

Dennis didn't even knew he slightly shrunk before her, he hadn't seen a look on her like that before. A scolding, hurtful, and sick mix of feelings all in one expression. He noticed she was keeping tears back. "Look Win…"

"Don't," she interjected. Her eyes closed as she took in a deep breath. She suddenly grabbed his arms, and started to squeeze.

Dennis started to buckle at the pressure and looked into her eyes. He was met with heated glare not like before but it didn't overshadow the hurt. Her eyes fell and she let out an exhausted breath.

"Winnie…" Dennis began softly. "I'm sorry, I had to or we would…" he couldn't finish.

"I know, zing–zing."

She hadn't called him that in a long time. He was about to say something when her paws moved up to his shoulders. He was surprised when her lips made contact with his but he didn't resist. Rough and hard paws went against wet and grimy skin. He felt her tongue try to push through his clenched teeth and he opened his jaws fully. They explored each other's mouths like they've done many times before.

"Jesus!" Wally turned his head in annoyance, he was in enough agony right now.

Jake turned to give them some privacy, he was happy his friend didn't get the screws to him like he thought he would.

They parted, both staring into the other's eyes. Dennis felt a familiar lump in the pit of his stomach, like he felt when they were in their early teens. Winnie seemed to be rejuvenated in a way, but Dennis could still make out something like fear in her ever since he saved her from the flames. It was just a hint of it but he could still see it.

Winnie cleared her throat as she backed away. "I better start cleaning up this mess."

Dennis watched her as she started to pick the flares up near the gun compartment and immediately went to help her.

"You know I love you, right?" Dennis reassured as he handed her the last group of torches.

"I know you do." She took them and went to her seat. Wally gave a dissatisfied hiss.

"Hey Val, we on the road yet?" Dennis called.

"No, trying to find it now."

Dennis slouched down on the crew seat behind the gun compartment. Jake walked over and put his fist up, "man, don't think I've ever heard of anyone walking from a Wraith strike."

The dhampir couldn't resist bumping his fist, despite the pain that came afterwards. He looked over to the gun locker, it's corner was cracked open but it still remained locked. "You guys really couldn't get that thing to open?"

"No," Jake shrugged. "Guess these things really are built to endure."

Dennis nodded and kept his gaze down. He still felt the needles and the slight nausea, he assumed it was just stage one of radiation poisoning and would blow over by morning.

The steering wheel seemed to resist Valerie as she pulled it to the right. She was confident she was on the way to the main road but she couldn't be sure, driving off-road proved to be more challenging than the road in this storm. Val could see a church tower coming into view through the dust. "Okay, I think I see the Evangelical… HOLD ON!"

She failed to notice the half buried tank in the ground in front of her, and the vehicle flipped as soon as she hit it. Jake managed to grab hold of the side handles but everyone else was tossed around like dolls. Dennis hit his head as he lurched up and felt the sickness reach a new level as he was thrown around, he couldn't hold the vomit.

The vehicle landed after five flips on it's back, right on the main road before the town. Jake recovered the fastest and helped Wally up, who whined in pain. Dennis wiped the bile from his mouth and scrambled to the front. Weapons now littered the roof as the locker was now wide open.

"Winnie! Val!" Dennis grunted loudly as he continued to crawl on the roof of the vehicle. He was met with a gust of dirty air and the tingling feeling intensified. He could hear struggling in the driver's seat and saw Val trying to unbuckle herself.

"Dennis!"

"I'm here, don't worry." Dennis heard some painful moan come from the passenger side.

"Winnie!" Dennis crawled faster. His eyes fell on a hanging Winnie, she had one paw struggling to free her legs and the other holding her skirt down. His heart began to beat when he saw the dark red blood streaked across her face.

"Hang on," he scrambled up and saw what was wrong. Her seatbelt was torn to shreds but a mess of it seemed to be knotted around her legs. Dennis unsheathed his sword, causing Winnie to wince.

"You know I won't cut you." He moved under her and began to poke and cut around the wad of hardened fibers. Winnie grabbed his shoulder as she felt the belt become loose and eventually fell into his arms. Winnie blushed beneath her cheek fur as her cuts began to heal.

Dennis pulled himself and Winnie up. He moved over to the busted windshield, sword still drawn. Winnie and Val shielded themselves as he hacked away at the shards on the edge, clearing them a way out.

Val and Dennis pulled their hoods up on their combat uniforms, it would offer them some protection against this storm. Winnie hung back and pulled the neck of her dress over her muzzle, it was the best she could do.

The three crawled out into the radioactive dust and turned to inspect the damage. The ANAC was flipped on it's back with the end sticking up from the turret. The turret itself seemed to be smashed along with the windshield, the vehicle as a whole seemed relatively intact.

Jake crawled out with Wally in tow and strutted over, his leather jacket bulged. Winnie ran over and took her brother's left shoulder.

Dennis stared strangely at the bulge in Jake's jacket. "What's with that?"

"A nice pouch of weapons, ammo, and munitions." Jake cradled the bulge like a pouch.

"Pfft, so that's what you were doing?"

"You know it," Jake shot his hands like pistols.

"So what now, Dennis?" Val asked, shivering in her uniform.

The dhampir looked around and towards the town. He pointed to the church tower, "we go in there and get out of this, figure out what's going on and rest up."

"Sounds good to me."

"Hey, what about the carrier?"

Dennis looked back at Jake, "leave it, we're soaking up rads by the second and that turret is useless."

"Got ya, chief." Jake nodded and followed the group as the strutted off towards the old town. Dennis glanced behind and noticed Winnie and Wally were starting to lag behind.

"Hey!?"

Dennis sprinted over at the sound of Winnie's yell. "What's the matter?"

Wally coughed and pointed back to the road, "we got company."

Dennis looked down the road back towards the city and could make out the low–beam headlights piercing through the dust. At first it appeared to be just one vehicle, then he saw another set behind them, then another.

"Dennis, c'mon!"

Winnie snapped him out of it. "Everyone to those buildings!" He pointed to a cluster of buildings off to a right side road. The rest followed after him, knowing they wouldn't make it to the church in time.


	8. Send in the Wolves

**Disclaimer: I don't own anyone here, Sony Pictures Animation does. OCs are mine.**

**Chapter Eight **

Greem's hard blue eyes were fixated on the monitor of his personal computer. A cold glass vial sat on the black surface of a sensor plate, which was connected to the PC via USB cable. The sensor plate was another one of his designs.

The ex–agent pulled up data sheets and saw the plate icon in the bottom left corner tab; the computer was ready. He looked over the screen at the strapped count. All there was to do now is to get a sample of the dark king's blood.

Drac was still unconscious. He slumped in the straps of the hand truck, head limp.

Greem chuckled at the figure, he reminded him of a drugged inmate at Guantanamo Bay all ready for experimentation.

He looked down and grabbed the object next to his hand, a steel hypodermic needle. _The key to a body of secrets. _He pulled back and pushed the piston on the syringe.

Greem got up and was making his way to the unconscious vampire when his communicator buzzed on. His arm swooped up and tapped it in frustration. _Damn can these guys do anything by themselves!?_

"What's going on?"

"The fucks got through the barrier!"

Greem didn't recognize the voice as Bela's and assumed it was one of the other cronies, only a handful of other monsters had communicators. He pounded his fist on the desk at the news, "Dammit!"

"Hey!"

"Hold on," Greem then walked over to the long table at the center of his room and settled in his chair behind one of the monitors. He looked to the outline of a building which was labeled with LPN Embassy and noticed the jammer was off. There were several 'friendly' dots moving around it. "I'll get Wasilei's pack on them."

He tapped off his comm and switched to a different output. "Prime Alpha, you there?"

"Da, I think that's the first time I've heard you address me."

The ex–agent thought he heard a chuckle at the end but ignored it. "Did you get her?"

"Nyet!" Wasilei's voice shot through the comm. "just nothing but my charred young bloods, little mongrel–lover must've jumped the window before the flames were up. That or we haven't found what's left of her."

"I know," Greem slid in his chair to the other monitor witch had the city's magic field status page pulled up. "It's because she escaped with the rest."

"And how was that?" The prime alpha asked just below a yell.

Greem could sense his extreme annoyance even through the communicator. This was supposed to be a perfect plan, a plan that would catch the Guardians for sure and prevent any outside interference. It was a chance to show off his proven strategics to the brood but the kids somehow found a way, or there was something else.

Feeling his own frustration, Greem couldn't pull himself to answer the question. He had to give orders now before they were far gone.

"Look, I need you and your hunting party on them now, if they get too much of a head start I'm not certain if even you could track them down."

Greem placed his hands down on a keyboard built into the table top and looked over to the other monitor. On the screen, he pulled up operation sight the city's magic barrier and signed in. After a quick status check, he then pulled up the dome's gate and power settings, and clicked the small 'open' tab. His hand moved over to a button next to the keyboard and pulled back the safety lock, pressing it. A nice feature that didn't involve powering the whole field down.

"There should be an opening at the main gate, enough to get your ANAC's through."

There was a short pause before Wasilei growled, "on it now." The communicator line cut off.

The turned vampire felt only slight relief, he didn't look forward to meeting the alpha when he returned. He only hoped that finding and ending those punks would take the heat off just a little, or maybe a true sample of the count's blood.

Speaking of which, he stood up and walked back to his desk where the needle still lay. He grabbed it and his gaze returned to Dracula, "now, where were we?"

"Oh yes," he mockingly chuckled. Step by step Greem paced, just a few more steps from the future. He almost felt giddy.

Now standing over the hand truck, he found his mark right on the exposed neck of the slouched count and steadied the ultra thin needle. Pushing the piston of the syringe in and with careful aim, he pricked the count's neck and immediately began to draw.

Greem watched carefully as the dark crimson liquid gradually fill the glass tube as he worked the piston back. He looked in astonishment at the blood, even for a vampire's blood it was rather dark colored, almost black. His hand slightly trembled at the energy radiating from the tube, the blood of a Dracula right in his hands, the secret waiting to be unlocked.

Wasting no more time, Greem rushed back to his desk with the sample. He resisted the trembling in his hands and guided the side of the needle on the rim of the vial. The dark blood began to fill the bottom of the vial as Greem pushed the piston in, the vial was filled halfway once the syringe was empty.

A light on one of the corners on the censor plate started to flash blue, signaling the sample was being analyzed. Greem darted behind the computer and watched the monitor.

The boxes on the sheet were blinking blue and Greem felt a new ping of excitement once some of them were solid green showing the words 'complete'. "Just a few more," Greem half talked, half breathed out. His composure was starting to fail.

The data buffered, and then outright froze. An error tab popped in the center of the screen. The excitement immediately fled him and was replaced with a mixture of dread, confusion, and boiling anger. Glaring at the screen, Greem closed the tab.

Greem stiffened at the sight happening before him. The formally green boxes were turning red with the words 'sample unreadable', from top to bottom. They all changed and he furiously looked over the monitor at the vial. The blood was now completely black with a shade of green, giving it the appearance of sewage water.

"FUCK!" The ex–agent swiped the keyboard to his right, it smashed into pieces against the wall by his strength. He got up and stormed over to Drac after he grabbed the needle.

This time, Greem violently jabbed the syringe in his neck and almost busted the tube at the rate he was drawing blood. He pulled the syringe up to his face and watched the dark blood carefully with his vampiric vision.

This vision allowed him to see something as small as blood cells if he focused hard enough. In the tube, it wasn't but a few seconds when he noticed a change in the cell's behavior. One by one the undead cells were becoming non responsive to the rest, then they were dark husks that were truly dead. It was almost like they were coordinating their own destruction, Greem had never seen cells kill off that fast outside of the body with either humans or monsters.

The tube was now a blackish green color just like the vial. Dumbstruck, frustrated, Greem just pushed the piston in and squirted the dead fluids on Drac's cloak.

Now he knew for certain the Dracula family had a secret worth dying for. It was a defense mechanism, it had to be. Probably passed down from his demonic heritage, maybe from Lilith herself.

Greem knew one thing though, when he woke up he was going to have some answering to do. Through any means necessary he was going to find a way around this.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Dennis didn't dare look behind him as they ran down the covered road to some two story town buildings. He thought he felt some vibrations from the vehicles but couldn't distinguish it from the storm.

He tried to focus on his squad but the dust pelting his face through the harsh gusts of wind made it near impossible. He saw who he assumed was Val dart into one of the buildings and could make out Winnie helping Wally not far in front.

He pushed himself harder and immediately caught up to the two werewolves. Winnie was really pushing Wally and by the grimace on his face from the dust seeping into his wounds showed he won't be able to take it much longer.

"Come on! Not much farther!" Dennis rushed the two.

He decided to take one glance over his shoulder. A cluster of dark silhouettes from ANACs came to a stop right at the city's entrance, shadowy figures started to dart out behind them. It was time to book it.

Luckily for the three, the open building wasn't too far away and they were able to reach it in just a few long leaps. Winnie allowed Wally to lean while she maneuvered through the doorway and Dennis came in behind then. Val immediately shut and locked the hardwood door while Jake lugged up a store shelf, empty glass bottles fell from the shelf. He used his strength to lodge one end in the floor and the other he propped against the door.

The Guardians piled in the back of the store, unsure whether to wait or try to retreat to another building. Dennis studied the surroundings for anything that could help them, he saw stairs leading down to a basement. He assumed this was a liquor store of some type with all the empty bottles and alcohol ad posters.

As Wally low growled in pain, Winnie kept eying the basement. She felt around the outside of one of her dress pockets and patted it once she found the object she was looking for. "Basement," she stated as she began to walk with her brother to the stairs.

"We go down there we're trapped, you know that right?" Dennis swiftly moved in front of the two, blocking their way.

"Well we're trapped either way Dennis!" Winnie near shouted in frustration. "I have something that might keep them off us, you just need to trust me."

Dennis hesitated, he was not about to take an unnecessary risk. "Winnie.. I, no." He couldn't get all of the words out.

"You mean you can't trust me like I couldn't trust you for that stunt in the carrier!?"

Dennis was taken aback, she got him there. With everything he'd almost forgotten about the quarrel with the Wraith.

"Move boy… let her do her… thing." Wally grunted between breaths.

The hybrid stepped aside for her brother's sake, he could tell he wasn't willing to go out in that storm again. Once they were down the stairs he motioned for the other two to follow.

The siblings were both consumed in darkness as they descended down the basement and had to allow their eyes to adjust before going any further. The first thing Winnie noticed was a wooden support beam in the middle of the room. She went over to it and eased Wally on it before pulling out the object for her plan; a small engraved bottle containing a yellowish liquid.

Winnie waited for the others to clear into the basement and regroup at the back of the room, she pleaded for Dennis to grab Wally. He tried but the aggravated werewolf growled and waved him off, he stressed he could move himself.

Dennis led the others to the back of the basement and filed behind a door to a supply room.

Winnie paused until Wally limped into the back room then popped the lid off like it was one of her perfumes and began to pour the lime fluid on the floor. She covered her muzzle with the neck of her dress as she poured from the center beam to the set of stairs. The unknown fluids began to react and boil on the cement floor and produced a smell best described as a mix between mustard, metal, and bananas, oddly similar to Agent Grey.

The bottle was almost empty when Winnie started to pour near the walls, a loud crash on the ground floor froze her. She began to panic at the sound of heavy footsteps and dropped the bottle before bolting for the small room.

The door was cracked open which allowed her to open it, get in, and shut it as quietly as possible. She found herself cramped against the others, the supply room was more like a closet.

Jake being closest to the door was the first to notice the stench blowing through. "Gah–lee," he winced and held his nose, "what the hell was in that bottle Win!?"

"SHHH!" Winnie lowered her voice to a whisper, "they're here."

The door smashed into splinters and the lock flew off the hinge at the impact from the brute werewolf, the shelf that was propped against the door fell back against the floor. Wasilei strutted in and sniffed the air, they were just here minutes ago. His sharp green eyes shot to the back of the room.

Loud scratching came from the storefront as black–furred lycans struggled past each other to get through the door on all fours.

Wasilei pointed to the back room with his shiny pointer claw, his fangs bared with his devilish smile. "Bring me their heads or hides!"

The small pack continued on all fours to the back room. Soon after the last wolf, Screeching against wood could be heard. Wasilei cocked his right ear and stared at the back room, wondering why it became quiet.

A rather scrawny member of his hunting party walked cautiously out of the room. He kept his head down when he approached the alpha, already feeling his heated stare.

"Problem?"

The werewolf slightly jumped but quickly answered in a weak voice appropriate for his appearance. "Grey Spores are down there, guys could practically smell it before we got to the stairs."

It took a moment for the alpha to comprehend the reply. "Strange… the underground of this city was cleared of them two years ago."

"That's what I thought too alpha," he choked and snorted. "There's no mistaken the stink."

The runt yelped as Wasilei shoved him aside and marched towards the back room. The aroma hit his nose as soon as he was in the doorway, he locked up for a second. His blood chilled as memories from the early days of the war. He looked over to his right at his underlings which were huddled on the floor near the wall. They appeared to be nauseous as they were leaned over and a few of them vomited.

Wasilei growled and motioned for them to leave the room, they didn't hesitate to leave once he sidestepped. He started to take steps towards the stairs, the scent only got stronger. He stopped at the first step and peered down into the darkness, he then kneeled down and focused his right ear for any sound.

Everyone was dead still, the only sounds were of their own heartbeats. They tensed as scratching sounds came from the stairs and then ceased.

Winnie's fur stood up at the sound of a meek voice above her and she shivered, it was one of the wolves who tried to grab her back in the embassy. She eased some though as they stayed on the ground floor which hopefully means her makeshift repellent was working. She looked around in a vain attempt to see what her paw was brushing against, it felt like twine but the darkness made it impossible for her to see what is.

Heavy steps came over them, causing dust to sprinkle down on them. They still didn't budge even when it got in their eyes, thanks to the hours of disciplinary training.

Dennis with his vampiric vision was the only one of the group able to see in the surrounding darkness. Winnie, Jake, and Val were in front of him and he looked down and right to see Wally sitting against the corner, he was close to being out of it.

He was alerted to some movement coming from the ceiling, he saw webbing bounce around, spiders. There were at least a dozen of them all over the room the size of his hand with sharp legs and bright colored abdomens that bounced with their every step.

Painful pricks brought his attention to his left leg. Six bright eyes stared up at him as the spider made it's way up his suit, it's legs piercing through the synthetic fibers. With one gentle motion from his fingers, Dennis used his levitation power to lift the arachnid and place it back on the webbing.

Val was struggling and twisting in front of him. He saw she had two spiders crawling on her torso and the tear streams beneath her closed eyes told him it was taking all her fortitude not to scream in pure terror. Knowing her arachnophobia, the hybrid lightly waved them off with his power.

_Close one. _He felt relieved to see her straightening up.

_Splat!_

Everyone jerked behind at the sound of the audible smack. Dennis was the only one who could see Wally with a paw full of spider bits, legs twitching out of the sides and yellow fluids leaking down his guard sleeve. His uncovered eye stared apathetically straight, not caring for the mistake he might've made.

Wasilei's good ear twitched, he didn't think much of the wet sound. He stood up as the scent of the chemicals were now too much for his nose and made his way back to the storefront.

"Fall back to the carriers, we're leaving this dead heap!" Wasilei ordered as he pointed to the door.

Most of the pack dispersed outside while the scrawny lycan approached from the side. "You sure it was this building alpha? They could have–"

"You doubt my hunting abilities, da?" The alpha cut sharp look right in the runt.

"Oh no!" The lean werewolf went back on his words in panic. "Just input from a young blood."

Wasilei grunted at him and shook his head, "without permission, it was." He looked around and took in the atmosphere of the raging storm. "They are still here, that's for certain. Whether they're playing smart or a puddle in the basement, they're not deeper in the city."

"In any case, we'll withdraw from the hunt for the time being." He reached around the side of his hide outfit and unhooked a bundle of grenades, then tossed them over to the runt. "Their vehicle, you know what to do?"

"Absolutely!" The runt caught the bundle of high explosives, feeling giddy at the fact he got off easy with making his alpha feel and insulted.

"Off you go then."

The young blood tossed the bundle over his shoulder and began on all fours out of the store. He made straight for the toppled ANAC.

Wasilei watched him as he vanished and then looked back to the basement. He didn't really believe the Guardians were dead and knew they were somewhere in the Bistrita underground, but with the storm and possible spores he would give them some time to get ahead. After all, with their vehicle gone they can't get very far in the wastes and it adds more thrill to the hunt. The alpha smiled at that thought before leaving the store after his pack.

The group still didn't make peep even after the heavy steps ceased above and the ground floor became quiet. Winnie leaned forward and cocked her ears for anymore unnatural nose, she flattened them at the sudden rumble coming from the city's entrance. She couldn't tell if it was thunder or an explosion.

"Yeah, I ca…!" Winnie and Jake felt themselves being shoved aside as Val squeezed herself through them and out of the door. She stopped and leaned over against the wooden beam, looking as if she was trying to vomit. She breathed in and out, trying to get her bearings.

"What the hell?" Jake was the first to walk out and the others followed.

"Oh… that's why she freaked." Winnie turned and saw the webs along the ceiling and floor corners, with the help of her CaDRU light. "Wally!" She dove in after her brother.

"Get off me!" Wally's annoyed moan echoed out of the closet.

Dennis walked up to the heaving doppler. She quickly wiped her face before looking up to her leader. "Sorry, I couldn't hold it anymore."

"No need to apologize," Dennis reassured. "You held up longer than I expected, might've saved our lives."

"Yeah," she panted out. Her eyes widened when she looked back to the closet and she pointed, "Dennis! Burn it out."

"What?. . No." The hybrid shook his head.

"You have that ignite power don't you!?"

"Yeah but I'm not gonna burn them down for being creepy."

"Besides," Winnie cut in, sitting her brother on the wall. "They were nice enough to not bite us for disturbing their webs, I even bumped a few."

Val shivered and shook her head, "whatever you guys say." She turned to get a better look at the basement, and went wide eyed again at the sight of Jake handling one of the spiders.

Dennis noticed as well and approached the golem. He got a better look at it in his pad light and saw it had a dark brown body with yellowish–white patterned abdomen. It's six eyes glowed light red off the light. He watched as the legs penetrated the skin of the golem as it skittered around on his forearm.

"Hah! This shit tickles!"

"You know what kind of spider that is?" Dennis asked.

"Yeah, False–widow Spiders. We have them in England, can leave one nasty bite." Jake moved his arm up and allowed the spider to crawl to his hand, it cast a web and spun down to his other hand. "Though these are like twenty times their size, Coven product maybe?"

"Wouldn't surprise me, those witches tried to weaponize every animal against the Coalition." Dennis began pacing back to the group, "I need you over here once you're done playing with it."

"Got it, boss." Jake let it go on the floor.

"So what's the plan?" Val asked.

Dennis sat down on a stack of cinder blocks and cradled his head, he honestly didn't know the move to make at this point. They could try to go get their vehicle, but he didn't truly know if their pursuers were gone, and he had a good feeling their vehicle was trashed for good. A part of him wanted to defy the order from this 'Stone Cold' guy and go retake the city, but the barrier would make it near futile. He could feel eyes on him, he needed an answer now.

"I… I guess I could go up and scope out the situation, see if we still have our ride."

Val gave him a concerned look, "how do you know they're not up there waiting for us?"

"Because we're still alive."

All eyes fell on Wally. He was lazily slouched on the floor against the wall, he used his good arm to play with some loose gravel. Dennis shot him a 'what do you mean look' and was about to speak when Winnie spoke.

"He's right, those were Wasilei's goons."

Dennis raised an eyebrow at her, "you sure?"

"Positive, I recognized one of the voices from the embassy and heard the alpha himself."

Dennis hung his head low in a new sense of confusion and stress. It was troubling to know that Wasilei was in on whatever this was, the very lycan that cost him his lifelong right. He picked himself back up and returned his gaze to Wally, "you served under him, didn't you?"

"Sure did," Wally grunted. "For the first half of my service at least. He was always so thorough and ruthless, nothing could kill him. One thing frightened him though." He smirked at his sister.

"Agent Grey," Winnie returned his smirk as she finished his sentence.

"I guess there's a history to that?" Dennis inquired.

"There is," Wally straightened himself. "Stuff wasted a lot of his pack and my brothers, nothing like seeing your former comrades scream like they haven't before and get turned to a biological slush before you. That's why I suggested Winnie have that stuff made considering she works for him, smells just like it."

"Uggh." Dennis was glad he didn't witness that. He looked down near the steps to see that the pools of the deterrent had since stopped bubbling. "What's that stuff made of anyway?"

"Witch's paste, rabbit blood, and some other household chemicals." Winnie answered.

"And just like Val, seems like Winnie just saved all our asses." Dennis gave her an admirable smile which contorted into a sly grin. She looked down, her light blush concealed by her cheek fur.

"Well," Dennis' eyes followed the staircase, feeling creeping anxiety about his next move. "Guess I'll go see the situation up there."

"I'll go with." Winnie got by his side as he hopped off the stack of cinder blocks.

_Of course you will. _Wally let his head fall, this was going to be a long skirmish for him.

Dennis proceeded cautiously up the stairs with Winnie creeping behind with her ears cocked. He looked back down at the rest, "you guys get out and head for the church if we're not back in half an hour."

The other Guardians gave affirmative responses while Wally's head slumped. The two stepped up past the basement door and disappeared from sight.

Wally tracked their footsteps with his ears before they stopped at the storefront. He let out a weak sigh, he felt like absolute shit. He felt a tingling all over his body underneath his fur no thanks to radiation, his wounds wouldn't be able to heal for quite a while and they still sent tingling pain with each slight shift he made, and it was past his lunch break now. A hungry lycan is an aggressive one.

He still felt guilt for leaving his fellow guards behind, even though he couldn't stand most of them. No one deserved that fate, to be torn apart by the despicable creatures you've kept locked away from the public. A couple of the guards were even close to retirement.

The wounded werewolf decided to look up at what the other two were doing in order to clear his head. Jake seemed to be keeping himself busy with feeling alongside the brick walls for whatever reason and Val glanced away as soon as his uncovered eye fell on her, he studied her. _Was she really just staring at me a second ago?_

Wally faintly recognized her as his older brother's ex. From what he saw, she grew from that scared girl they found in the testing facility. Not physically but her overall hardened appearance. _Guess since her and my brother couldn't be a thing now she looks at me, _he joked to himself. He thought it wouldn't hurt to strike a conversation with her. "Hey, horrible driver."

Val turned at that, her expression puzzled with a slight pull of annoyance for the last part. "…what?"

Wally stretched, wincing in pain. He was trying to say something but he didn't even think this through before getting her attention. "So… you hate spiders?"

"Yeah I do, in fact." She stared at him strangely, not knowing where this was going.

"Why?"

She paused at the question. "…just an incident that happened on my world, I'd rather not get into it."

"Hmm," Wally nodded. He glanced over at the closet door. "Seems like Dennis has a thing for his fellow bloodsuckers."

"Yeah I can't believe he didn't torch that nest."

Wally smiles and faces her, "don't worry, I would've squashed those bugs if my body was worth a damn."

"Um… thanks?" Val couldn't remain serious anymore and snickers escaped from her mouth. Wilbur sure was right about him, he could make anyone laugh in some way.

"No problem." Wally lightened a bit, feeling the ice melting between them. He looked back over to Jake who was still moving along side the wall, looking rather foolish with the bulge on his stomach. "What's he doing?"

"That's a good question." Val was bewildered as well. "Hey, whatcha doing Jake?"

"Feeling," Jake answered. "This city has an underground that connects all the basements, it was dug out by the populace before the war really got serious."

"O…kay." Val still didn't understand.

"Some of the basements have tunnels that go under the city, and one of them leads to a scrapper stash."

Val thought about it, "so you think they might have supplies we could take?"

"Sounds better than staying here, considering Wasilei and his pack have an idea where we're at." Wally had to agree with him.

"Right, and those gremlins most always leave food behind for other scrappers." Jake answered Val.

The golem continued along the wall, lightly pressing his hands against the bricks. He was right next to the stairs when a brick pushed in the wall against his hand. He pushed it harder and it fell behind the other end of the wall, exposing a brick–sized crevice showing a dark room.

Jake peered inside and pulled back when he couldn't see anything. He took in a breath and fisted his hands, and slammed the wall with all the might of his two fists. A section of the wall shattered on impact, sending bricks into the next room.

"Well I'll be damned," Wally said, surprised.

Jake took a step in the other building's basement and saw it wasn't much different from this one except for the storage room being on one of the sides and not the back. He looked left at the steps and saw a dark hole just below the staircase, it was big enough to fit him.

"Looks like we found the underground." Jake stepped back out.

"You serious?" Val asked.

"Just a hole, looks like it goes pretty far in and it's big enough to fit all of us," Jake reported. "Only one problem though, has webbing all around it."

Val immediately went pale, she was feeling sick again. She let out a pained sigh. "There isn't another way?"

"I'm not going back out there again and staying here isn't very smart." Wally was quick to shoot that down.

"So I assume we you guys have something?" Dennis questioned while heading down the stairs, Winnie close behind.

"I found what looks like a tunnel that goes pretty far in, could be the Underground that connects to the scrapper stash," Jake answered. "We have a vehicle?"

Dennis and Winnie both shook their head. "ANAC'S trashed, just like I expected and there's no sign of Wasilei so that's something," Dennis answered. "It's a good thing you took everything out of it."

"I always prepare," Jake stated

"So…" Dennis looked around at the others. "We all agree with the tunnel?"

"I'll have to pass," Val spoke, keeping her head down.

Dennis shot her a glance.

"Forgot to mention the spiders," Jake answered for her.

Wally grumbled, he hoped she would've kept her mouth shut. "Can't we just cut off the dead weight and leave her behind?"

"What!?" Val almost screamed.

Wally fell over, he couldn't contain himself from the look of her wide eyes. He broke down in a fit of laughter. "Oh! Your damn face!"

Dennis raised an eyebrow. "…no, we don't do that here Wally." Winnie shook her head at her brother's sense of humor.

Jake appeared as if he was confused but on the inside he had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.

"Sorry," Wally composed himself. "I just had to."

Val glared at him before exhaling.

Dennis looked over at her. "How about this Val, instead of using my pad light I'll cast a vampiric torch with my incineration powers, it should give us enough light and keep the spiders away."

Val took some time to answer, "fine… I'd rather you cast like three of them but okay."

Dennis gave her a reassuring nod and looked to the others. "Everyone up for the Underground?"

"Yeah, let's."

"Sure."

"Nothing to it but to do it."

Val weakly nodded.

"Alright," Dennis drew his sword. "Let's go."

"Hey, you mind using some of that vampire heal juice to patch me so I don't have to be carried by her?" Wally asked Dennis while keeping a weary eye on his sister.

Wally was able to stand up and walk, some of the pain left him after Dennis used his healing spell like he did in the factory.

The rest followed Dennis as they made for the tunnel entrance in the next room, the dhampir stopped and cast a hovering ball of flame that hovered in the air in front of him. They entered the tunnel, it wasn't long before the torchlight disappeared.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The elevated flame was small but the light it gave was bright and any spiders scurried ahead of them or dove in small holes. Small holes and webbing covered the side of the dirt walls causing Val to keep her eyes straight on Dennis' back. She thought she would pass out if she saw eyes staring at her out of the holes.

Winnie had her CaDRU on for extra light and would peer down one of the side tunnels, they were always walls of web in them. Her nostrils were being assaulted by all kinds of smells, mold, decay, dirt, and fecal matter of some kind. "What exactly are we looking for?"

Dennis waited until the next side tunnel to answer her. He pointed at a shape cut into the dirt, it was a semi rectangle with an arrow pointing ahead and a square on the inside of the rectangle. "That's a stash symbol, a gremlin sign for the metal scrappers if they ever got lost down here."

"So does this lead to another basement?" Winnie asked when they started to walk again.

"I hope so, supposedly the stash is in a hardware store of some kind." Dennis looked at all the webbing. "This place mustn't have seen any visitors in years."

Dennis stopped walking when something down one of the side tunnels caught his eyes, piles of human bodies wrapped in webbing. He could see the spiders were more dense than the previous tunnels and egg sacs littered the ceiling above. A husked face stared at them from the back of the tunnel and limbs stuck out from the webs.

The dhampir faced away and continued down the tunnels following the arrows.

"I seriously hope the spiders didn't kill all those people," Jake said aloud.

"Actually," Wally spoke up. "I heard a story from one of the guards about this place, said the humans that hid here were able to stay hidden through the first half of the war." He looked to see if Val was listening. "The magic the witches used made the spiders aggressive to humans and they moved in, covering all exits and the survivors were bitten to death."

"Okay, no more about the spiders." Val sputtered, Wally chuckled in response.

They continued on for about thirty minutes when they walked under some exposed roots. Dennis couldn't help but be reminded of their old times in the Old Underground, playing around in them when they were still kids. "Hey Winnie, bring back any memories?"

Winnie glanced up at the thick oak roots. "Yeah, those times when we used to pretend to dungeon crawl?" She grinned as her childhood came back to her.

"Exactly." Dennis smiled. He stopped when he felt a draft. "Not much further, I bet."

The main tunnel began to curve and they followed it until they reached one of the side tunnels. The next arrow pointed down the side tunnel and the broke off and entered it. It led all the way to an opening.

Dennis stepped down into the floor of a basement and motioned for the others to follow. He couldn't find another stash mark one look around the piles of scrap, coiling, and wires told him there was no mistaking this place.

"We're here."


	9. Sleepless

**Disclaimer: I don't own anyone here, Sony Pictures Animation does. OCs are mine.**

**Chapter Nine**

Weapons and equipment scattered along the top of a tarnished utility table as Jake emptied his jacket.

"Holy shit you actually did get just about everything," Dennis marveled at the flares and medical kits.

The group were now on the first floor of a hardware store, used by gremlin scrappers as a safe house. The storefront had long since been looted but some nails and hand tools still remained cluttered on the first floor. They managed to find the stash in a refrigerator near the first floor windows, it contained bottled coffee, water, a couple of nut bars, and some canned meat.

Wally had already ate half the meat before Winnie confiscated the rest. She put them in one of the rucksacks they found.

Dennis sipped on his water canteen that he refilled as he looked over the weapons. It tasted like ditch water, but it got the job done and his mouth wasn't dried. "Okay, let's see what we have here and who gets what."

He began to call them out. "We have two M58s with twelve mags of ammo, one Chewer shotgun with six drum mags, two Ankle Biters with eight mags, one Mini Crossbow with twenty silver bolts, and the AGL 45 I used with a number of slug types."

The group of fighters studied over the weapons, Wally was the first to grab at one. "Shotgun's mine." He inspected the weapon like he had experience with it before he weakly slung it over his shoulder.

"Yeah." Jake took the grenade launcher and tied the grenades around his waist.

Both Val and Dennis took the assault rifles and clipped some of the spare mags on their belts.

Winnie didn't care too much for firearms and settled with the mini crossbow. She carefully loaded one silver bolt before putting the rest in her satchel she found in the stash.

In the end, both Val and Jake agreed to take the pistols and placed them in their holsters along with extra mags. Winnie took the aid kits and put them in the rucksack with the food and drinks, and took the flares and spare ammo and stored them in the other rucksack.

Everyone settled down and all went quiet in the room, except for the raging wind outside. A kerosene lamp burned on the utility table and lit up the area near the Guardians, hitting the storage boxes and leaving plenty of shadows.

"So what now?" Winnie asked, she was redressing her brother's wounds on a worn sofa beside the table.

"We wait, until we here anything from our mystery guy in the city." Dennis relaxed in an old recliner on the opposite end of the table. "Think it would be Val that gets pinged."

Val laid on a tarnished spring mattress aside a wooden shelf playing some type of game on her CaDRU that was something along the lines of ping pong. "If he does, I'll let you know."

"I wonder who this guy is," Jake pondered aloud. He took a swig of his water bottle and sat against the wall on the floor.

"They're some higher up I know that, those and the Guardians were the only ones issued CaDRUs." Dennis did doubt this monster was from another Guardian Squad since they were either killed off or sent somewhere else across the globe.

"Could be one of the Brood for all we know, leading us right into a trap." Wally winced as his sister tapped his cheek.

"Don't move." She was in the middle of replacing the bandages on his face.

"I doubt that even more than it being another Guardian, these things lock off in the presence of Dark Magic."

Wally stared past Winnie at the ceiling with his exposed eye. He didn't trust that fancy technology that the Guardians use seeing as it caused the prison break, but he knew he had no other choice but to go along with them considering the state he was in.

Val watched fiercely as the blue ball bounced across her screen and moved a vertical line which acted as a racket to block it, it went back to the other line. She had to be more smart and unpredictable, the game A.I. adapts to her play style the more rounds she wins against it. She was about to move her racket up to block the ball when a message cut her game short.

**Stone Cold**

**Meet at these coordinates:**

**47.4979N, 19.0402E**

Val jumped up after reading the message. "Guys! They responded!"

"About time," Dennis sat straight up. "What does it say?"

"He wants us to go to these coordinates, I'll screen share." Val took a screenshot and sent it to the other Guardians.

"That's it? Nothing about what's happening?" Dennis asked as he opened the picture and read the coordinates.

"Uhh… that's in Hungary." Jake pointed out. "Budapest to be exact."

_That's it? Just coordinates? _Dennis frowned and followed the coordinates on his map and sure enough, it pointed to the center of the Budapest ruins. "Hey Val, can you message them and tell them what's going on?"

"Me and my bro would like to know ourselves." Winnie had a sinking pit in her stomach thinking about her family still in the city.

Val replied to the contact with message that asked who they were and what's happening in the city. It was a short moment before she received another message.

"Alright," Val began. "Dark Brood have Transylvania, fronted by Greem, Wasilei, and Bela. I'll reveal myself at the meeting point."

Dennis sat back and allowed the new info to sink in. He had a feeling Bela and Wasilei were behind the attack but Greem fronting it? The most loyal man to Dracula and the guy who helped us win the war?

"Hey," Wally caught the attention of everyone as he struggled to move his head over. "Last night… Greem and the alpha came to the prison, they wanted to see Bela for some reason. Now I know what for."

"You didn't think to tell anyone? Warn a higher official?" Dennis was quick to jump on him, the attack might've been thwarted if he spoke up.

"Only Wilbur, didn't want to lose my job you know or bring unwanted attention to myself."

Dennis inwardly cursed the werewolf guard, he could have saved a lot of lives if he'd spoke up to the right people.

"What about our families?" Winnie reminded, referencing her and Jake.

Val messaged the contact again regarding their families. She got a new message immediately.

"Your families are still in the auditorium, they aren't hurt in any way. Can't talk anymore, time is up." Val read off.

"That's comforting," Jake noted with a hint of sarcasm.

"Val?" Dennis began to inquire. "Reason for the attack? Drac or Vlad?"

"Stone Cold's locked his contact info, guest we really do have to wait until we meet them."

Dennis stood up, walked forward, and placed both hands on the metal table. He lowered his head in deep thought. He didn't like any of this and a part of him felt helpless, like they weren't enough to deal with this. Truth is they weren't, but he didn't have faith in this Stone Cold guy or whoever they were.

Most of the other monsters in the room sat up and got around the table to wait for his answer. Winnie was the first to speak up. "So. . Budapest then?"

"No other choice," Dennis stated. "Thing is, I don't think we can make it there on foot from here, at least not dragging him around." He finished while looking over at Wally.

The werewolf was silent. As much as he wanted to protest, Dennis was right. His wounds probably won't fully heal until the next decade or so and he felt a headache creeping in from thinking about the distance he'd have to walk.

"I don't see another option," Val summed up. "Unless you want us to take our chances and see if one of us can steal another ANAC."

"No chance Val." Dennis immediately cut that idea, way too risky even with her shape shifting.

"I have something," Winnie spoke up while scrolling the map on her pad. "The Hoia Forest Conclave is just a three hour walk southwest from here, I say we stop there and see what they can do to help."

Dennis looked up at her with an annoyed scowl. "More like if they help us, or decide to kill us on sight. Those magic–wielding hermits don't care for us Allegiance types if you didn't know."

"It's perfect though." Winnie sent a screenshot the area of the forest to everyone's CaDRU. Dennis looked over the greened area in confusion, not seeing what she's getting at. "We obviously can't trust any other allegiance member and the conclaves trade with the scrappers on occasion."

"Okay, but what makes you think they'll let us in?" Jake was also skeptical of her idea.

"Him," she pointed at her zing.

The hybrid gawked at her. "Look Win, I know I have this dhampir charm and everything but the Conclaves? Doubt they even know who I am."

"Dennis seriously?" Winnie deadpanned. "You are known by like everyone, the Conclaves even had some of their people at the address!"

"Okay Win," Dennis muttered as his head went down. He began to serf through his brain all he knew about the Conclaves and the risks that came with approaching one unannounced. From the stories he heard, they protected their work in healing the planet very seriously and rejected any kind of technology that would otherwise harm it. This, along with their introverted nature made any interaction beyond scheduled trades imminent trouble.

Mostly they would teleport trespassers to a random location before they even made it to their encampment while a few were reported to be killed on sight and their entrails hung up as a warning. He didn't know anything about this particular conclave and wasn't sure how they'd react, but he knew there was a good chance they wouldn't survive if they set off straight for Budapest. Dennis let out a defeated sigh and gave his answer, "we head for the Hoia Conclave at 0600."

"Alright," Jake commented, bumping his fists. "Now we're getting somewhere."

The rest were energized and ready, now that they finally had an official plan of action.

"One thing," Dennis sharply cut in, he looked over to Winnie. "I want you to do the talking."

She looked at him like he was insane, she was about to protest before he continued.

"You look the less menacing one out of us and you're better at negotiating, Besides, this was your idea."

Winnie closed her mouth, this was one of the few times she hated him being right. "Al. . alright."

"If they recognize me then I'll start the talking," Dennis reassured. Winnie still seemed skeptical.

Dennis checked his CaDRU screen. "It's 2:46 now, we have a little over three hours till we move out so have your shit ready and see if you guys could find some rest," Dennis confirmed.

The other Guardians nodded in affirmation and began to ready up before returning to their rest spots, Wally had already dozed off on the sofa. Even as the kerosene lamp clicked off, the hybrid knew this was going to be a sleepless night for him.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The shadows from earlier had now consumed most of the room and the only light came from out of the window. The storm had passed over, leaving only the wind and revealed the shimmering moon.

Dennis' troubled mind wouldn't stop, a repeat of the same memories and worries kept playing over and over again like a broken record. The full weight of the situation had settled since they weren't fleeing anymore, it kept him wide awake.

He looked over to the window, at the church tower that was used as a beacon for the outpost. It's haunting silhouette spanned the entire height of the window. From it, he was reminded how much buildings like that made him uncomfortable. He didn't know if it was his small percentage of demon blood acting up or the fact that it's tower painted a similar image to the old hotel, where that fateful day still plagued his dreams. Not even the bloody war could compare.

His mother left him, his father died, and he saw a different side of monsters that day. He couldn't help but think back to the day after, why Papa Drac wouldn't let him see his father's body along with his other grandparents. The image of that body in the tunnels suddenly came to him, it's drained out husked face replaced by his father's…

He immediately killed it, and decided to think about something else that was troubling. If the castle was captured, that means that Drac and Vlad were either captured or killed, neither of those ideas were pleasing considering the nature of the Dark Brood. They were most likely being tortured out of pure hatred, and he didn't even want to think what was happening to his other family, Frank, Wanda, and the rest.

He closed his eyes, Greem kept popping up in the darkness. His hard face and cutting blue eyes seem to radiate with a type of evil, a cold one, of treachery and some other unseen motive. Why did he do this? To just betray everyone, to what end? He opened his eyes back up to rid his vision of the blonde snake.

Dennis looked back out the window, the sound of the wind coming through the cracks made an eerie tune. He didn't like to think, but he could somehow feel his mother out there, somewhere in one of the many wastelands. On the days in the past where he wasn't having those corrupt dreams, she would come to him, dressed in black. She'd just stand there with that motherly smile, surrounded by white light. He would instantly recognize her even though he hadn't seen her in years. It was almost as if she spoke without moving her lips, reminding him that he's strong, and perfect in her eyes.

He'd wake right up the next day and it would be so frustrating, he would lose all memory of what she said. Those dreams became more frequent as of late. He couldn't tell if they actually meant something or if it was just his mind messing with him. Even though a part of him thought his grandpa was wasting his time, he hoped deep down he would find her.

Dennis tried his best to wash the sorrow away and moved his hand to his wrist device, he squinted at it's blinding light. 4:58, the time read.

Some movement brought his eyes to the sofa, Winnie was stirring. He watched as she sat up on the rear of the couch, lazily rubbing her eyes. Her muzzle was slouched in a pitiful frown and her eyes were barely open. She started crawling over her end of the sofa and dug around in the rucksack, eventually pulling out one of the waters and wasted no time in gulping it down. She erupted in a coughing fit, not knowing the quality of the water.

Dennis slowly focused his vampire vision and could easily see her looking around, probably to see if she woke anyone. Her eyes then locked on his she stared for a moment. A smile crept onto her muzzle after seeing he was awake.

"Hey." He didn't have to speak up, knowing her hearing.

She gave a peace sign with two of her claws. He nodded in a 'come here' motion, to which she groggily made her way over to him. Neither of them said a word as Dennis scooted over, allowing her a spot on the leather recliner. It was a tight fit though she snuggled up against him and laid her head on his chest, giving the hybrid some room. She let out a tired exhale after she settled.

"Can't sleep either?" Dennis asked.

"I did for an hour or so, with the dreams though… I just can't." Her voice dripped with exhaustion.

"I get you," Dennis gentle stroked her hair, which was a tangled mess. "That's why I haven't slept at all, not with the knowledge of the folks back home. Nightmares are bound to come."

Winnie didn't say anything. Dennis knew she had it worse with Sunny being there. He moved his right arm around her midsection in a loose embrace.

"I'm surprised they're able to find any sleep," Dennis spoke referring to the others, namely Wally and Jake. Both the golem's parents were there as far as he knew.

"Wally's been through worse," Winnie said with a bit of remorse. "As for Jake, I'm sure he's handling it fine since he shoves things like that aside."

"Yeah, I just hope that doesn't become a problem in the mission to come."

Dennis decided to change the subject. "You ready for tomorrow?" He felt as if he laid that responsibility on her too fast.

"Yeah, it was a logical choice."

"No really, Winnie?"

She sighed. "Yes Dennis, I can do the talking if the need comes."

"Okay, hopefully they'll recognize me so we can go to option A."

The two laid there in silence for a few minutes. Dennis thought back to the fear he keeps seeing in her eyes, ever since he found her at the embassy. He had a small hunch as to what it was. "Hey Winnie?"

"…huh?"

"Back at the embassy… what happened?"

She turned her head up to face him, her expression one with question. "Why do you ask?"

"I don't know, it…" he broke eye contact with her. "It seems like something happened to you, I notice it in your eyes every time I look at you."

He got nervous, a answer didn't come from her immediately. He felt her head shift down. "It's not about what happened, it's about what almost happened." Her voice was shaky at the last part. "I'd rather you leave it."

"Oh…" Dennis took her advice and didn't press. After a while, he looked down to see her looking at him again.

"How are you holding up?"

He let the question sink in and prepared his response, "I guess I'm okay, still a little queasy with the rads in me."

Winnie could sense the stress in him. "You're thinking about something aren't you?"

"Yeah I am in fact." There was no use being dishonest to a werewolf. "I'm worried about Drac and Vlad, but I can't help to think back to mom and dad in times like these. I just wish things could go back to the way they were."

"You know thoughts like those are pointless, right?" Winnie didn't hold back. "And you have us you know?"

"I know Winnie, it's just my mother. I realize there's probably a good chance she's dead but I keep having these strange dreams where I find her, it's so realistic."

Winnie watched him and listened closely as he talked. She once heard from her mother that vampires have this type of connection with their love ones, unlike that of humans and werewolves.

"When grandpa told me he was going to look for her…" Dennis continued. "I had no choice but to think otherwise, I wondered if he had the same… visions."

"And you didn't think to tell him this?"

"I couldn't," Dennis shook his head. "I hoped he would just drop the subject."

"Why?" Her mouth was agape in disbelief.

"By slight chance if she's alive, what if she doesn't want to be found? The last memory I have of her is her screaming away in anguish and anger, you think she would've showed up by now if she missed."

"…"

"I doubt she wants to see me if I'll remind her of him," Dennis referred to Johnny. "Hell I think that's why Drac made me lose my locks, just because I looked like the human he failed to save."

Winnie took his hand in her paw, and rubbed her digits through his. "I'm sorry, zing." She didn't realize it was this bad, granted he didn't really talk about the subject of his parents with her. She thought she had it worse with losing over a couple hundred of her siblings in the war but she couldn't imagine losing one of her parents, or Sunny. "I wish I could make your pain go away, just like those witches with their healing spells."

"I know you do Winnie, and thanks." He shifted and got into a more comfortable position.

"You know what I think we should do when this is over?" Winnie asked after a minutes of silence.

"What?"

"Me, you, and maybe the other two if they're up for it, go with Drac to look for Mavis." Winnie paused. "Even if it means losing my job."

Dennis took in every last word. He was especially taken back by the fact she'd give up her current position she worked hard for just to make him and Drac happy. _That's what I call a keeper Dennisovich, _he snickered. Vlad would say something along this line if he heard this.

"I'm serious Dennis."

"I know, I know, I wasn't laughing at that." Dennis needed that laugh as he lightened up significantly. "Seriously thanks Winnie, I say let's go for it."

Dennis gazed down to see that affectionate smile he was used to from this woman. Looking into her eyes, he saw that fear had dissipated some and she seemed to have temporarily forgotten what troubled her. He cupped her rough face with one hand and she immediately leaned up, pulling each other into a kiss like they've done so many times now.

As their lips parted, Dennis' nostrils inhaled a sickening aroma that was a mixture of wet dog, burnt fur, and body odor. He scrunched his nose and did his best to make it as obvious to her as he could.

"What?" Winnie blurted.

Dennis struggled to keep from laughing. "You… you stink Winnie." He lost it and fell over on his back in a giggling fit. The way he said it, in that childlike manner, was sure to get a good reaction.

"Why you…" she lightly punched him in the arm. "You certainly don't smell like clean puppies and lavender yourself bat boy!"

Dennis covered his mouth, her bugged voice had him wheezing in hilarity.

Winnie broke and started to laugh as well. "Oh shit!" She covered her mouth at the realization of her outburst and looked to see if the others were still asleep.

"Don't sweat it Win," Dennis brought himself together and looked at his CaDRU. He saw quite some time had past since he last checked it. "It's about time to wake them up anyway and get this show on the road."

Winnie took some breaths in after her last few giggles. She laid back down next to Dennis, hoping the moment would last a little longer. She thought about the road ahead and what awaited them as the went to retake their city, it was the first time since she was a pup that she prayed to Odin to get them through.


	10. Trek to Shepard's Forest

**A/N: First off I'd like to thank Studio Zolo, MavisDeSilvaHelsing, and the guest for reviewing as well as the follows and favs. I've noticed I've hit a few milestones like writing more than seven chapters and getting my story over 28k words, sadly the story will slow down. If you haven't seen my bio, I've started a new job that has me working for most of the week and between my favorite passion of gaming, my time reading and writing will be cut short like greatly. I really don't want to give up on this story as I've put a lot of thought into it and have so many more ideas for this universe. Peace out, be safe out there, I don't know when I'll post up here again but good luck.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anyone here, Sony Pictures Animation does. OCs are mine.**

**Chapter Ten**

Shallow breaths escaped from Dennis' mouth as he moved on towards Hoia Forest with his squad following suit. He took a sip of his bottled coffee in his left hand, which had a taste akin bad beans and river water. He had his rifle trained in his right hand and glanced down at his left wrist, 6:03 his pad read.

They had set out about 4:40 that morning after drinking up some coffee and redressing Wally's wounds. The town had drifted out of view and is far behind them now, they were now passing through a decayed forest. Dead trees and shrubs blocked the view ahead. They would have moved on faster if it wasn't for Wally, who trailed in the back of the group.

Thankfully the weather had all but cleared, the rain had stopped completely, the wind had died down, and there was almost a hundred percent visibility. Dawn had started to peek in the East behind them, it would have been a sight to see with the rays hitting the retreating storm clouds, creating a pink–orange aura in the skies above them. But they couldn't break now while being pursued.

They were now on the edge of the woods when Dennis slumped on a tree husk, panting. He finished up the coffee and threw the empty bottle on the ground. It didn't help him at all with his level of drowsiness, he only wished he had gotten an ounce of sleep.

_Some blood, now that'll jumpstart me._

"You okay boss?" Jake placed a large hand on an opposite tree, surprised it was able to support his weight as he leaned. He had both rucksacks.

"A–okay, just need to catch my breath."

"Hey what's the issue!? Let's go!" Wally yelled, pissed that he had to stop. The pain didn't seem to bother him that bad when he was in motion. Winnie shot him a look over her shoulder and placed a furry finger over her mouth, urging him to settle down. Feeling ill after staying up with Dennis, she felt like she had circles around her eyes.

Dennis looked up from the ground and to the southwest, he saw a series of hilltops run along the dark skyline. It was a clear path to the forest over those hills, according to his arm pad. His eyes then shot to the dark ground before the hills that seem to span to the North and Southeast infinitely. A few sunken cars were submerged halfway and a tank turret stuck above the surface in the middle, _a mud field._

"Alright_,_" Dennis breathed out as he stood back up. He pointed to the mud field. "Looks like we have to cross that mud field to get to the hill, only way to get through is to walk. The vehicles haven't fully submerged so it probably isn't quicksand."

"Probably?" Val quipped.

The dhampir shrugged. "Most likely. The only option I see for ALL of us to get through is take the walk, stay close, and hope we don't sink."

"Let's get this show on the road dude." Wally was strutting in place. For all he cared they could sink twenty feet, he just wanted to keep good distance away from Wasilei.

Dennis ignored him and looked to his squad, "you ready?"

Val and Jake gave verbal affirmations while Winnie weakly nodded, they already knew Wally's answer.

Without another word, Dennis turned in the direction of the dark field. He walked right to the edge of solid dirt and stopped, looking around the at the sea of black mud. He coughed up as the scent hit him, like that of burning tires or industrial sludge.

_No point in stalling_. Dennis took the first step and his boots immediately sunk, he finally stopped sinking when the mud was at his knees. He took another step and struggled to pull his right foot up. "Alright guys, not quicksand." He said with a little bit of enthusiasm.

The dhampir trudged at a medium pace, he tried to go faster but the deep mud simply wouldn't allow it. Jake stepped in behind his footprints and sank in to his waist. He winced at the cold and wet sensation.

"There we go, just let him make a path for us!"

Jake glared ahead at the sound of Wally's voice. "I heard that!"

Valerie was the lightest of the group and was able to walk in the path Jake made without getting her pants that muddy. Unfortunately for the wolf siblings, the sludge leveled back out as Jake and Val moved farther in the mud field.

_Grrr! _Winnie gritted her teeth and growled as the mud went to her thighs when she jumped in. She might have enjoyed this a decade ago but now the thought of this sludge sticking and drying on her fur made her want to grind her teeth until they cracked. She had gotten a bit more girlish compared to her youth in the underground.

Wally jumped in after her, he didn't seem to mind it as the coolness actually distracted him from his pain.

The tank that was sunk in the center of the sludge field seemed like it hadn't gotten any closer in the eyes of Dennis. He took it slow, glancing behind him every now and then to check on the others. Though it would have been easier for him to just flip form and shoot off, he didn't have the energy in him to carry his whole squad across one by one and he knew there was no way he could carry Jake.

They eventually reached the tank in the center of the field and decided to take a short break. They all sat on top of the turret and let their legs rest.

"Tsk Tsk," Wally looked down thumped the armor of the sunken war machine. He recognized it as a monster made tank by the black paint and the dark green Allegiance emblem. "Looks like someone is a piss poor driver."

"You know what kind of tank this is?" Dennis directed his question at Wally, he didn't keep up with Allegiance military hardware.

"It's a Hellhog alright, though I don't know the model." Wally examined the flat top of the surface. "It's a MK.2 if I had to guess, the top doesn't have an AA gun and the edges of the armor are chiseled down to reduce weight. Basically they took the turret off since it was pretty much useless against most American aircraft and the tanks were heavy enough already."

"You have an idea of what happened to it?"

Wally looked below his legs at the skirts of the tank, forming an answer for the hybrid's question. "No external damage. If I had to guess, it was a bunch of young dumb asses who thought they could run this field." Wally didn't stutter.

"Then gravity caught up with them and there goes an expensive piece of Allegiance tech."

Dennis was surprised the military didn't come to reclaim the vehicle with how new it was, though judging by the area and the type of mud, he can see how it was pushed on the back burner until it was just forgotten about. He glanced over at Winnie who was now struggling to keep herself up straight and not fall asleep. She looked absolutely pitiful, her fur was a tangled mess and the circles around her eyes reminded him of her father. It was a shame she couldn't stomach coffee.

He moved his hand over to her paw, surprisingly she didn't flinch when they touched. _Energy that low?_

The drained werewolf simply glanced over with her left eye. "Hmm?"

"You alright?" Dennis cursed himself, the most common and stupid question. Obviously she wasn't.

She slowly nodded, "yeah… I'll be better when we reach the conclave."

"Definitely." Dennis couldn't argue with her on that one. His hesitation for their destination had faded and wanted to get there as fast as his tired body would carry him. He stretched his legs down and extended his arms above his head.

Jake sat hunched over the back of the gun, breathing heavily. The sludge pulled on him the hardest of the group and he was feeling the results of a 200 meter walk through it.

Val was resting with her back on the top of the turret, she sat up and looked with concern for her squad mate next to her. "You good, big guy?" She asked as she pat his back a few times.

"Yeah," Jake breathed out. He looked to the end of the mud field and back to the sunrise which had a few rays beating down on him, his breathing was now more controlled. "Just that walk right there and that's my exercise for the rest of the week." Jake joked, eyeing the end line of the field. He moved a weary eye to Wally, half expecting him to make a crack at his size but nothing came from the wolf guard's mouth.

After stretching, Dennis cracked his knuckles. He looked at his wrist and checked the time, it was time to move out.

"Alright," Dennis spoke after he cleared his throat. "It's 7:20 now and we got 300 meters of mud left to trudge through from the looks of it, so if we leave now we should get to the edge of the forest by 8:45."

Most of the group just gave low nods in response but of course Wally was the one who jumped down in the mud and began to move. "See ya there."

Dennis shook his head before he looked away at his squad and gave the order, "Move out."

**xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Dennis fell forward on his knees with Winnie's arms around his neck, both almost to the point of blacking out and completely covered in the dark mud.

"Fucking shit," Wally fell on his back and coughed up some sludge. He growled and snapped his sharp teeth at the pain pulsing in his wounds, the adrenaline was starting to wear off. _That shit_'_s all in my burns!_

Valerie made it out not too far behind Wally and hobbled over to a tree stump, almost collapsing on it and letting the two rut sacks fall behind it. She wiped the mud from her face and and leaned on her lap.

Jake fell on his stomach as soon as he stepped on dry land, those 300 meters took everything out of him.

It took them roughly two hours to cross the remaining distance. They didn't count on the rest of the field being a yard deeper nor did they count on it being a death trap, they reeked of decayed flesh. The rest of the field hid a submerged graveyard for the few surviving animals traveling from the forest out to the wastes, it was practically quick sand to them. While wading through the muck Dennis thought he felt the remains of either monsters or humans, his mind immediately went to the tank crew and wondered if they were MIA.

The tired hybrid moved his wrist shakily to his face and made a feeble attempt to wipe the mud off the screen. The CADRU screen lit up at the feel of his glove's signature fabric. It was 9:33, 48 minutes longer than intended.

"Okay Win… down you go," he struggled to get Winnie off his back. Dennis eventually worked her stained body off and gently placed her on her back. Her eyes didn't open and the fast breaths coming from her muzzle was the only sign she was alive. She nearly broke down in the middle of the mud field, strained and having absolutely no energy left. Dennis decided to tote her the rest of the way and let Val carry the rut sacks.

The dhampir looked around wearily at the distant wasteland around them. He was surprised no reinforcements from the city haven't been sent after them yet. "Wonder where Wasilei's goons are?" He wondered allowed.

"Probably giving us a heads up," Wally groaned. "He always likes to toy with his prey." The werewolf pulled himself up and made for the stump Val was on, he sat himself down a few feet next to her.

Dennis sat down next to Winnie. The clouds were gone and the sun's rays were beating down on them, making the dhampir ill. He hadn't been in the daylight since his training days, he already missed the coolness of a clear night. Dennis figured they could rest for now, but they'd have to get moving soon, much to his dread.

"Bunch of softies," Wally grunted as he scowled over the down guardians. "A couple of years ago I had to swim across an entire lake in Pennsylvania during the winter, while sleep deprived, just to rendezvous with my unit to take a Coalition FOB."

"And by 'lake' I assume you mean a twelve foot pond," Val quipped with amusement.

"Wilbur can tell you, you know once we take back the city from those degenerates." Wally spoke distantly, like he was reminiscing the agony he felt that day. Only a temporary distraction from the pain he felt now.

Val couldn't stop a giggle. "I was just screwing with you, he told me."

"Was that before or after the break?" Wally glanced up slowly.

"Before, obviously."

Wally shrugged in response and looked back out to the mud field they just crossed. They didn't speak for a few minutes until Wally broke the silence. "Yep… those were the days, the last days of the American front. It was basically like Battle of the Bulge on steroids, we had the remaining Western forces cornered in the northern parts of America and those winters were something to remember."

Val stared straight ahead, but she listened to every word he said. Wilbur told her plenty of stories of the American Front whenever he would come home on temporary leave and most of them were really nasty, almost as bad as the Eastern Front where Wasilei's pack fought. Though it seemed like Wally was more of the badass than Wilbur with the latest stories, she'd poke fun at Wilbur for that.

Even now, Wally was still talking about some of the many battles and his fallen brothers. She watched him and his dull face as he spoke, sadness was in his feral yellows. It had been only a year since the war had ended with the nukes but the wolf guard seem to bear semblance to an old werewolf even though he was in his early twenties. Even though he seemed outwardly feeble compared to his older brother, He was stronger in the eyes of Valerie. Not in the same since, though looking in his eyes she saw somewhat of a wall made out of indifference, like he just blocks everything out. _Yeah_, _he shouldn't do that._

"…hey Val? That's what you go by isn't it?"

She immediately snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of Wally's voice. She shot her eyes Dow to see him staring up at her quizzically, a smirk forming on his muzzle. "Did you ask me something?"

"Yeah," Wally laughed. "I asked if you have any stories or past… experiences."

Valerie's mind went blank for a second, "aside from the time we stopped Bela from killing Drac, there's nothing I really care about sharing."

"Figures…" Wally looked back down to the dirt with a chuckle. "You guys weren't on the frontlines, that's why you're all so soft."

Val wiped some of the mud from her face and hands. "That's not really fair since are training was harder."

"Right, but you guys didn't have to kill any humans didn't you?"

"No but we did kill other monsters, which is considered by many to be morally worse."

Wally simply grunted and cracked his neck, he decided to leave that there.

Val heard him mention something about his commander awhile ago and thought back to last night. "What'd you say your commander was? Brenten?"

"Braxton," Wally corrected. "And yes, he was."

"Oh… sorry for the loss." Val realized he was one of the casualties from last night.

Wally didn't look up. "I am too… dude made it to the end of the war with us just to get capped by some brood."

Val didn't say anything, she could see the glare that formed in his eyes. It went away though, and his muzzle changed to humored smirk.

"Pretty funny," Wally started with a laugh. "I remember in Spain when our landing ships were America bound and he took the reins from Wasilei. He showed up wasted, and the first thing he told us was _alright_, _here's how you don't end up dead… what difference does it make, you'll probably end up dead anyway!_"

Val couldn't hold it and she broke down in a fit of laughter. "Wow… that's so depressing."

"I think he lost half his pack to a cruise missile the night before, so yeah it was kinda depressing." Wally tried to ease his laughing but another thought hit him. "Oh and the look on Wasilei's face… man that wolf hated hybrids."

"He was a hybrid?" Val asked as she composed herself.

"Yeah a Vaewolf, and you now the Allegiance is with hybrids."

Val nodded, she frowned as she thought back to some discrimination she herself faced. "I got few heated glares myself even though I'm not really a hybrid, there're stores back in the city that won't even let me in, just because I smell and look too much like a human."

A frown began to tug at Wally's muzzle as he looked up at her. For a second, he saw that isolation he saw in the vaewolves he served with… until she made eye contact and turned away. _So fucking puppish,_ he mentally cursed himself. "Hmm, maybe the brood trashed those places and they'll let you in once you help Dennis save the city."

"Doubt it," Val shook her head. "But maybe they'll at least stop making faces."

There was silence between the two until Wally decided to finish up his Braxton boasting. "But yeah, he assimilated the rest of his pack with my remaining brothers and that was it. We were off to the States."

Jake and Dennis were starting to stir, giving the two spectators the idea they were asleep. Val gives Wally a smirk, "looks like we'll have to wake them this time."

**xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The edges of the forest came into view as the group made it over the hill. It looked just like a normal block of woods to the average eye with low shrubs and a mixture of oak and pines. It seemed like a breath of life in a dead wasteland, but Dennis could feel something about this place in his blood. Some pretty strong magic was at play in this forest.

"Finally!" Jake bellowed. "I swear if there was nothing but wasteland beyond this hill…"

"Please don't say that," Winnie breathed out out.

Dennis smirked and gave her sidelong glance. "Still up for talking?"

He could see her shoot him a look out of the corner of his eye but he didn't look at her. "It's alright Win, just joking." Unlike Winnie, he felt a little more lively than he did since his thirty minute nap. The sun was also covered up by a series of cumulus clouds forming in the sky.

Dennis motioned for them to stop once they've reached the forest edge, right at the opening of a path. There were some rather strange effigies planted in the ground and some ornaments made from critter skulls hung around a pine tree.

"Heh, at least they're not entrails." Wally's voice trailed. The skulls clattered together as a sudden breeze past through, and the effigies black cloth arms waved lightly. The ambience of the forest didn't sit well with them either, the sounds of birds and crickets replaced the distant winds of the wasteland. They hadn't recalled the last time they heard natural ambience like this.

Dennis found a sign nailed to the trunk of the same pine tree with the skulls. There were red letters in Romanian smeared in what he assumes was either blood or red paint, he hoped it was the latter. Everyone else was fluent in Romanian except for Valerie, who was only semi–fluent. Dennis decided to translate.

"Hoia Forest edge, traders leave supplies halfway down path near shed, intruders stop and turn here or never come out…" His last words hung in the air.

"Friendly bunch," Val muttered.

Dennis didn't even look at Winnie, if she wasn't so ill he would've said something like _I told you so. _He didn't really know what to do now, some part of him wanted to just call it quits and go straight for Budapest. He knew that wasn't an option, they needed supplies and transport.

"Anyone have any ideas?" Dennis asked partly out of defeat and partly to hear his squad mate's opinion.

"Honestly, I think we should just book it straight to Budapest." Val suggested. "I think I'd rather die of exhaustion then be boiled in soup for whatever monster version of inbreeds live here."

"Between the lack of supplies and Wasilei's pack, we'd be lucky if we get to the Hungarian border." Wally reminded.

Jake remained silent, he really didn't want to go back to the city. If there was another way around the mud field it was another trek entirely. Like Valerie, he didn't want to go in the woods either.

"Screw it, let's just go in the woods." Wally took his shotgun and cradled it in his good arm, muzzle aimed down the path. "The fuck is a bunch of pansy mages gonna do anyway?"

His sister looked up from leaning over a tall shrub and raised her eyebrow. "Uh… a lot actually."

"We're like armed, trained, and we have our own mage–person." Wally deadpanned and motioned to Dennis.

"Do you even hear what you're saying?" Winnie returned the look with more aggression. "The correct term is 'Battle Mage' and the conclaves are mainly made up of veteran mages… well mostly."

"See, you don't even…"

"Stop!" Dennis held his hand up to stop that before it got out of control. He looked back down the path, the sign, then to his squad. "I've thought, I've listened, you still want to do this Winnie?"

The worn wolf girl looked down when his eyes fell on her. She shot a dirty look at her brother, she hated the thought of agreeing with him. "I guess… seems like we're screwed no matter what we do, at least with this route we have chance of refueling."

Dennis nodded, he looked to the rest. "You with?"

Wally clicked the safety off his shotgun with a deadly smile.

Val and Jake just nodded. They didn't want to, but they saw the logic of their situation.

"Alright then." Dennis took in a deep breath as he turned back to the path, he himself didn't really want to do this. He pulled the charging handle back on his rifle a few times to get the mud out before clicking the safety off. "I'll take point, the rest of you stay alert and weapons ready."

"Let's go."

The path was longer than the group had anticipated, they'd been on it for at least over half an hour. The path would become narrower and would widen out not a few yards later. There were some low parts of the path that were flooded but it didn't deter the roving group.

They all felt uneasy in these woods, Dennis in particular. There were some times in the past he would feel it, whenever he was in an enchanted area, this forest was that five fold. Drac told him it was their blood and that they're sensitive to certain levels of magic, always saying he'll get used to it every. _Pfft, I don't know want to get used to th_is _level of anxiety and itching_.

Despite how dead the forest looked with it still being late Winter, the strange woodland was alive with the sound of various birds, bugs, and chorus of frogs. They even saw one rabbit go across the path but the werewolves didn't have the energy to go after it. The liveliness of this place almost seemed artificial. Most of the group stopped when they saw some trees on the side of the path, they had curved trunks that seemed like they were trying to arch over the trail. Winnie and Dennis read some old pamphlets about those, it claimed they won't even supposed to grow there because of the soil content. Just another weird thing about these woods.

The group were absolutely silent, which allowed their thoughts to run rampant. Well at least for Dennis. He couldn't get his mind of the city, the death, the chaos, Drac, and what could happen if they're not fast enough. The dread of meeting the conclave dwellers didn't even rival it. There was obviously something bigger going on with the betrayal of Greem, and he didn't like not knowing. He was almost tempted to take Val's CADRU of her wrist and blow the hell out of Stone Cold's message box.

The hybrid froze as soon as he broke himself from his thoughts, Winnie bumped into him. He brought his fist up into a 'halt' motion.

Not even a fifty meters down the path, an old structure sat behind some trees on the right side. Dennis cursed himself for not noticing sooner since the place stuck out like sore thumb in the natural canvas.

"I'll check it out," Dennis stated before training his rifle up and cautiously moved towards the old shed. He assumed it must've been the shed the sign mentioned, which would mean they are now halfway from the conclave.

It didn't take him long to get to the front doorway, there wasn't a door. It was an old and basic sheet metal barn, the sheets were mostly rusted and vines grew along the outer walls. He listened for some time for any movement inside before peeping his head in. There was only one large empty room, with a few pallets on the old wooden floor which he guessed that was the place for supply boxes from traders.

Dennis made a 'come here' motion as he moved away from the shed. "All clear," he said just above a whisper.

"What now?" Val asked, a bit confused. "Where's the conclave?"

Dennis pointed behind him. "If I had to guess, it's another long walk down the path."

The group's moral dropped a little lower than it already was. Another long trek, and more anticipation. With their luck, the inhabitants were already aware and stalking them.

"No more time to waste then." Wally slung his shotgun on his shoulder. "Hey Dennis, you mind using that heal–magic you have. The pain's coming back to me."

Dennis' spell temporary patched him and the group were off again. Dennis ordered them to keep the barrels of their weapons lowered so they would seem less of a threat just in case the conclave dwellers were observing them.

They walked about a quarter way until Winnie stopped in her tracks, causing Jake to bump into her. "Sorry about that Win."

She didn't acknowledge him, and instead cocked her ears as her gaze moved to the woods on the left. The fur on the back of her legs and neck began to stand up.

"What's the hold up?" Val asked, a bit agitated. She had both rut sacks again and wanted to find the Conclave sooner than anyone.

Winnie simply put up one of her fingers, urging her and everyone to be quiet.

Dennis turned around as he didn't hear the other's steps anymore and raised his eyebrow at Winnie, he began to quietly walk back. He nudged her and gave her a 'what's up' look when she turned.

"We're being watched," was all she said before she turned back to the left.

"I hear it too." Wally was also focusing on the woods. "The leaves cr…"

"Shh!"

Not long after Winnie silenced him, a distant sound made them all flinch. Everyone heard it, a thud of a limb or something heavy followed by some clattering.

_Something in the trees, _Dennis thought.

Both Val and Jake began to bring up their weapons when Dennis waved for the two to lower them. However, a whooshing sound filled their ears as something large began to fly to them. Dennis broke his own order and raised his rifle, the others did too. It was too big to be a large bird, the only other thing that came to them was a bat crony, or Bela.

"Shit! The fucker followed us here!" Dennis harshly whispered.

The armed group waited, ready, but the thing turned as the sounds seem to move in the direction of the path. Dennis caught a glimpse of it though the treetops with his vampiric vision, something greenish. He lowered his weapon and his guard only slightly, no crony but still a monster.

"Did you see it, Dennis?" Winnie whispered to her zing.

"A glimpse, yeah. Didn't look like no crony but was definitely a monster of some kind… and I'm sure it knows we're here."

"Great," Valerie mouthed as she picked one of the rut sacks back off the ground.

"I got this one," Jake picked up the other.

"Alright, let's get moving." Dennis ordered as wearily turned away from the woods and moved back on the path.

"I'm not keeping my gun down anymore." Wally remarked as he took up the rear, walking backwards.

It's was about a twenty minute walk now after their encounter with the flyer, and the group began to speed up their walking. They didn't notice but the forest had grown quiet, no animals, no wind. Just the sound of the leaves crunching beneath their feet echoing throughout the woods.

Dennis began to become twitchy as the sense of magic became more intense, it wasn't long now.

A large wooden structure came into view at the end of the path, causing the group to stop. Dennis looked closely and could tell it was a gate of some kind.

Dennis made a stop motion, "move up slowly."

They followed him as they crept with their weapons ready to be brought up in case of a threat. They could see the gate was connected to a larger fence that seemed to go around quite a distance. There were no treetops visible behind the structure which gave the impression that a clearing was behind it. Iron fittings and window frames could be seen on the front of the gate and log spikes jutted out along the top of the fence. They'd be lying if they said it wasn't an impressive design for forest dwellers.

Dennis was closing in on the entrance when some bark fell from a tall pine to the right, getting his attention. He raised the muzzle of his rifle up as he scanned the tree. His gaze stopped at the tallest branch where he could make out a shimmer, it was something alive.

"Show yourself, we're not here to cause harm." He spoke as loud as he could without shouting.

The two werewolves tried to get a scent from the sudden breeze but all the got was the scent of the tree. Their ears were sharp enough to hear it breathing.

The being shifted slightly, and a set of yellow eyes glared down at the intruders. It was some type of flying creature they could tell, smaller than a crony but it did seem to have more bulk. It didn't respond, only it's breathing intensified.

Wally pointed his shotgun up, an irritant scowl on his muzzle. "Hey pal we don't have all day, you could either answer us or we fill you full of silver, your choice."

"Hey!" Dennis snapped as he glared at Wally.

Winnie face palmed, _he's done it now._

The thing started to move again, away from the trunk and out father on the branch… revealing a gargoyle. It's hard skin was the same color Dennis saw, a slimy bluish–green. It's shark like teeth shown behind curled lips as it glared down at the group. "You allegiance types," it spat in a guttural tone. "No respect, no regard for the work we do, and no decency."

Wally returned the glare through the iron sights of his shotgun.

"Gun down, Wally." Dennis lowered his head in annoyance. He looked back up into the glowing yellow eyes and chose his next words carefully. "We're not gonna do that, is the Hoia Forest Conclave? We'll leave if it isn't."

The gargoyle's glare disappeared but his scowl remained. He extended his wings and closed his eyes, he appeared to be stretching them. Clicking sounds could be heard from the creature as he appeared to be thinking. "And what if this is? So you can defile it?"

"No," Dennis shook his head. "We're low on supplies and one of us is hurt, we also have to make a long trip so if we could get some food or gear or at the very least have permission to hunt and camp in your forest."

"You can't 'own a forest' idjit, and I might not want you or your imbeciles in this great haven." The gargoyle's words dripped with sarcasm.

Unease fell across the group, though Dennis was now impatient with Wally. "Well whatever you decide, we need to know now."

"Hey Berkeley! Are those kids here!?" An older male's voice came from behind the gate.

The gargoyle known as Berkeley turned his head. "Just a bunch of allegiance young bloods playing soldier!"

There was a pause. The group stared to gate in confusion.

"Is there a ginger vampire among them!?"

Dennis raised an eyebrow. Wally held a laugh and quietly snickered.

"Ugh…" Berkeley looked at Dennis for a second, then moved his yellow saucers along the rest of the squad. "Yeah! But I think he's a hybrid!"

There was another pause. Dennis was curious as to how the other guy knew they were coming, or how Berkeley knew he was a hybrid. He looked over to the rest to see nervous stares except for Wally, who had a nonchalant expression and played around with the sling of his shotgun.

"Z wants him now!" The voice demanded.

_Z?_

"Hmm, looks like your fate is in her hands now." Berkeley mocked.

Dennis looked at him, confused. He turned to Winnie who nodded hesitantly. He waved for the others to lower their weapons.

"Those won't do you any good here anyway," Berkeley said with a hint of menace. "I wouldn't keep her waiting."

Dennis gave him a cold look before making a head motion for his squad to follow. The gate began to open as they made their way too it and standing along the side holding a lever was a zombie, no, a ghoul.

Ghouls were like zombies, except for them having more of their features preserved from when they were alive, and they aren't slow. This ghoul looked to be a male in his human 50s, he had on a grey suit and tie, strangely. The right side of his face had decayed and exposed his black teeth, the rest of his skin and hair was mostly intact albeit pale.

He stared at them with steely grey eyes as they walked through the gate, holding what appeared to be an auto–loading crossbow in his left arm.

"Ugh… hey is…"

"Save it for her." The ghoul cut Dennis off and pointed to a hooded figure in the center of the conclave.

The conclave itself was rather small but it looked like a paradise in the group's eyes regardless, especially compared to the wastelands or the city. Aside from log houses, the perimeter was mostly a grassy clearing with a strange monolith–like object in the center. A creek cut in under the wall in the back of the conclave and the largest building was sheet metal barn like the shed down the path, except with it being much larger.

Dennis eventually closed in on the woman who appeared to be tending to a small garden. He put his arm up to stop the others as he continued to approach her, who acted as if she was unaware of his presence.

"Good morning, Dennisovich."

The hybrid froze. She spoke with an old Romanian accent and had the sharpness of a snake, chills went up his spine. _How the hell does she know who I am!?_

"You and your friends can make yourselves at home here, for now. We have much to discuss, very much." She turned pulled her dark brown cowl down, revealing herself.


End file.
